sometimes

you have to take

a step or

two

back,

re-treat

take

a month

off

don’t

do anything

don’t

want to

do anything

peace is

paramount

pace is

paramount

whatever

you want

you aren’t going to

get

it by

trying too

hard.

--Charles Bukowski

Be willing to be split open.

“No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.”

--Samuel Johnson

“Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.”

--Norman Vincent Peale

“Here I am: a bundle of past recollections and future dreams knotted up in a reasonably attractive bundle of flesh.”

--Sylvia Plath

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

--Rumi

“It’s the only time I feel like me, she said, & everyone else just thinks it’s dress up.”

--Brian Andreas

"Find out who you are and you will always be beautiful."

--Lou Doillon

“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it, I am going to use all of my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry, or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”

--The Dalai Lama

“Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.”

--Natalie Goldberg

“What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?”

--Ralph Ellison, 'Invisible Man'

“There are only two kinds of people in this world. The realists and the dreamers. The realists know where they are going and the dreamers have already been there.”

--Robert Orben

“Don’t let yourself feel worthless: often through life you will really be at your worst when you seem to think best of yourself; and don’t worry about losing your “personality,” as you persist in calling it: at fifteen you had the radiance of early morning, at twenty you will begin to have the melancholy brilliance of the moon, and when you are my age you will give out, as I do, the genial golden warmth of 4 p.m.”

--F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'This Side of Paradise'

"Your life is always under construction. It is your job to learn how to untangle the threads and weave a tapestry that matches your desires."

--Dannye Williamsen

“It was one of those perfect autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.”

--P. D. James

“I believe in me. I’m a little screwed up but I’m beautiful.”

--Steve McQueen

For you.

I started this blog for myself to keep quotes that I loved, never expecting so many of you to find me here. I just want to say thank you to everyone who has left a comment or sent me an email, reminding me that you're out there reading, too. Even though I don't always respond to each comment individually, I appreciate them all the same.

xo...Paige

“Until I was 30, I dated only boys. I’ll tell you why: Men scared the sh*t out of me. Men know what they want. Men own alarm clocks. Men sleep on a mattress that isn’t on the floor. Men buy new shampoo instead of adding water to a nearly empty bottle of shampoo. Men make reservations. Men go in for a kiss without giving you some long preamble about how they’re thinking of kissing you. Men wear clothes that have never been worn by anyone else before […] At this point you might want to smack me and say: “Are you seriously just another grown woman talking about how she wants a man who isn’t afraid of commitment?” Let me explain! I’m not talking about commitment to romantic relationships. I’m talking about commitment to things—houses, jobs, neighborhoods. Paying a mortgage. When men hear women want a commitment, they think it means commitment to a romantic relationship, but that’s not it. It’s a commitment to not floating around anymore. I want a guy who is entrenched in his own life. Entrenched is awesome.”

--Mindy Kaling in Glamour Magazine

Your ship comes in because you’re the captain.

“I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.”

--Roger Ebert

“Despite whoever created it, it’s my world, & the only one I’ve got. Might as well make the best of it, right? Might as well have a little fun while I’m here. Or a lot of fun. Might be dead tomorrow.”

--Ellen Hopkins

“If there is no wind, row.”

--Unknown

“This is a world where everybody’s gotta do something. Ya know, somebody laid down this rule that everybody’s gotta do something, they gotta be something. You know, a dentist, a glider pilot, a narc, a janitor, a preacher, all that … Sometimes I just get tired of thinking of all the things that I don’t wanna do. All the things that I don’t wanna be.”

--Charles Bukowski

“So now I have started living my own life. Imperfect and clumsy as it may look, it is resembling me now, thoroughly.”

--Elizabeth Gilbert

“Oh, it is wonderful to wake up in the morning with things to look forward to!”

--Dodie Smith, 'I Capture the Castle'

“I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone.”

--Henry Rollins

“I will spread myself like wings. I am a billion tiny feathers. You have no idea what’s happened to me.”

--Dave Eggers

“Society goes on telling you, “This is right, and that is wrong”—that is conscience. It becomes ingrained, implanted in you. You go on repeating it. That is worthless; that is not the real thing. The real thing is your own consciousness. It carries no ready-made answers about what is wrong and what is right, no. But immediately, in what-ever situation arises, it gives you light —you know immediately what to do”

--Osho

“I do not think that I will ever reach a stage when I will say, ‘This is what I believe. Finished.’ What I believe is alive and open to growth.”

--Madeleine L’Engle

“When I work hard for something, I don’t like people telling me, Oh you’re so lucky. I aint lucky. Your ship comes in because you’re the captain.”

--Patti Smith

“The things we hate about ourselves aren’t more real than things we like about ourselves.”

--Ellen Goodman

“Because there’s nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s sent away.”

--Sarah Kay

“To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent. Enough labor for one human life.”

--Czeslaw Milosz, 'Learning'

“You only lose what you cling to.”

--Buddha