So I've Heard
On Life
- John Steinbeck, East of Eden -“Our species is the only creative species, and it has only one creative instrument, the individual mind and spirit of man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations, whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man.”
On Travel
- Nelson Mandela -“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.”
On Life
- Saul Bellow -“Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance.”
On Work & Career
- Robin S. Sharma -“Remember that leadership is about influence and impact, not title and accolades.”
On Love & Relationships
- Suzanne Rindell, The Other Typist -“But that’s the funny thing about treasure—we assume everyone wants what we hold most dear.”
On Life
- J.D. Salinger from The Catcher in the Rye. -“Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them – if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”
On Love & Relationships
- Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers -“I was doing that thing the infatuated do, stitching destiny onto the person we want stitched to us.”
On Words & Books
- William Saroyan -“I don’t know what makes a writer, but it probably isn’t happiness.”
On Love & Relationships
- Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch -“Caring too much for objects can destroy you. Only—if you care for a thing enough, it takes on a life of its own, doesn’t it? And isn’t the whole point of things—beautiful things—that they connect you to some larger beauty?”
On Life
- Mark Twain -“Who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?
On Life
- Theodore Rubin -“The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.”
On Words & Books
- Ezra Pound -“Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.”
On Life
- Jim Rohn -“Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.”
On Life
- Milton Berle -“I’d rather be a could-be if I cannot be an are; because a could-be is a maybe who is reaching for a star. I’d rather be a has-been than a might-have-been, by far; for a might have-been has never been, but a has was once an are.”
On Life
- -“I remember when i was younger and I wanted to be beautiful; now I’m older and I want to be intelligent. I want to burn hearts with brilliance and engulf souls with compassion. I want to be loved for my thoughts and nothing else.”
On Travel
- Abdur-Rehman Qadeer -“I can tell about one who didn’t win. And it didn’t matter. Because his destiny was battle, Not the victory. He was born to travel, Not to find destination. He lived to live, Not to make a home.”
On Work & Career
- Winston Churchill -“The price of greatness is responsibility.”
On Life
- Caitlyn Siehl, What We Buried -“I am not a place for cowards.”
On Words & Books
- Hunter S. Thompson -“Not a wasted word. That has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.”
On Love & Relationships
- Chester Bennington -“What’s the worse thing I’ve stolen? Probably little pieces of other people’s lives. Where I’ve either wasted their time or hurt them in some way. That’s the worst thing you can steal, the time of other people. You just can’t get that back.”
On Travel
- Trenton Lee Stewart -“May your adventures bring you closer together, even as they take you far away from home.”
