MORE QUOTES TO CONSIDER

Some more tidbits from some of my inspirations - they've helped me consider all sides of a story, all sides of an issue - so that I may go about my life in a fresher, clearer, more intelligent and informed way:

1) “How strange it is. We have these deep terrible lingering fears about ourselves and the people we love. Yet we walk around, talk to people, eat and drink. We manage to function. The feelings are deep and real. Shouldn't they paralyze us? How is it we can survive them, at least for a little while? We drive a car, we teach a class. How is it no one sees how deeply afraid we were, last night, this morning? Is it something we all hide from each other, by mutual consent? Or do we share the same secret without knowing it? Wear the same disguise?” 

-Don Delilo

2) "We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and -- in spite of True Romance magazines -- we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely -- at least, not all the time -- but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness."

-Hunter S. Thompson

3) “People tell you who they are but we ignore it, because we want them to be what we want them to be. We're flawed because we want so much more - we're ruined because we get these things in wish of what we had."

-Matt Weiner through the writings of Don Draper, Mad Men

4) “It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.”

-George Orwell, 1984

5) “…It is always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals come easily.”

-Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

This world can be a crazy place, overwhelmingly so sometimes. These ideas can propel you from one day to the next and remind you of the only thing that really matters: Your relationship with yourself, and where you find time for it to grow, adapt, and ultimately hold sacred everything else around you; without figuring out who you are, you will never be able to leave the impact you so deeply desire.

Don't take it from me, take it from the undeniable geniuses above.