Collected Thoughts

Often I stumble across lines I find thought-provoking, comforting or inspiring, that have helped me face adversity, or recover from it. I jot them down, print them out, or make a photocopy to stick up on my refrigerator, but after a while I forget. So I thought I'd assemble some here, with appropriate citations, in the hope these ideas are helpful to others.

• Every day is a journey, and the journey is your home. - Basho

• Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. - unknown

• Don't look back in anger, or ahead in fear. Look around you in awareness. - James Thurber

• Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs. Professionals built the Titanic. - unknown

Or, for something slightly different:

• Never be afraid to try something new. But remember, amateurs built the Ark and professionals built the Titanic.

• Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. - Abraham Lincoln

• Just because a story is true, doesn't mean it's good fiction. - unknown

• Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. - Chinua Achebe, quoted in The Economist

• Don't believe everything you read, but believe everything you say. - L. Ron Hubbard's renegade son

A new one that has been guiding my decision-making in 2021:

• Be decisive. The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn't make a choice. - sign in a shop window in Blaine, Washington.

Another new one, I can't believe I didn't put this in sooner:

• I have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute. - Rebecca West