You have nothing to prove to anybody.

"Can You imagine? For example, what the trees do not only do in lightening storms or the watery dark of a summer's night or under the white nets of winter but now, and now, and now - whenever we're not looking. Surely you can't imagine they don't dance, from the root up, wishing to travel a little, not cramped so much as wanting a better view, or more sun, or just as avidly more shade - surely you can't imagine they just stand there loving every minute of it, the birds or the emptiness, the dark rings of the years slowly and without a sound thickening, and nothing different unless the wind, and then only in its own mood, comes to visit, surely you can't imagine patience, and happiness, like that."

--Mary Oliver

"And if these pictures have anything to say to future generations, it's this; I was here. I existed. I was young, I was happy, and someone cared enough about me in this world to take my picture."

--'One Hour Photo'

“I have less time, less tolerance for bullshit, more interest in good taste, more confidence in my own judgement. The culture with which I surround myself is a reflection of my personality and the circumstances of my life, which is in part how it should be.”

--Nick Hornsby

“I’ve tried so many times to think of a new way to say it— and it’s still I love you— love you— love you.”

--Zelda Fitzgerald

“I want to know you moved and breathed in the same world with me.”

--F. Scott Fitzgerald

“When she walked she carried herself like a ballet-dancer, not slumped down on her hips but held up in the small of her back.”

--F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'Tender is the Night'

“No one wants to admit we’re addicted to music. That’s just not possible. No one’s addicted to music and television and radio. We just need more of it, more channels, a larger screen, more volume. We can’t bear to be without it, but no, nobody’s addicted. We could turn it off anytime we wanted.”

--Chuck Palahniuk, 'Lullaby'

“I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.”

--Margaret Mead

“Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you."

--Annie Dillard

"The bitter taste of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of the low price is gone."

--Unknown

“Real style is never right or wrong. It’s a matter of being yourself—on purpose.”

--G. Bruce Boyer, Gary Cooper: Enduring Style

"If you can't walk the red carpet in your own home, where then?"

--Carolyne Roehm

“Time wounds all heels.”

--Jane Ace

"Create your own visual style. Let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others."

--Orson Welles

"Real success is finding your lifework, in the work that you love."

--David McCullough

“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet.”

--Tyler Durden, 'Fight Club'

“You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.”

--Maya Angelou

"There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one."

--Kazuo Ishiguro

"Write drunk; edit sober."

--Ernest Hemingway

“She was looking into my eyes with that way she had of looking that made you wonder whether she really saw out of her own eyes. They would look on and on after every one else’s eyes in the world would have stopped looking.”

--Ernest Hemingway, 'The Sun Also Rises'

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

--Marcel Proust

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”

--E.E. Cummings

“The picture you have in your mind of what you’re about will come true. It’s kind of a thing you kinda have to keep to your own self because it’s a fragile feeling and you put it out there, somebody’ll kill it. So, it’s best to keep that all inside.”

--Bob Dylan

"Perhaps love is the process of gently leading you back to yourself."

--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“It may be normal, darling; but I’d rather be natural.”

--Truman Capote

“When you eventually see through the veils to how things really are, you will keep saying again and again, this is certainly not like we thought it was.”

--Rumi