#begin

What should be standing in the shoes of passion, and be walking on the plans of action is sitting in the ink on the papper. Why? Because of the fear to start. ↗

— Israelmore Ayivor

#afraid #begin #beginning #fear #fearful

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously. ↗

— Charles Dickens

#birth #clocks #coincidence #famous-beginnings #heroes

Just as abruptly, he'd become a father. While preparing the book for publication, he'd been dating a woman named Sarah Coowe, an infectious-disease specialist at MGH. They were evenly matched in many ways: sharp-dressed, sharp-tongued, and devoted to their careers and personal freedoms to the exclusion of any serious interest in so-called romance. They spent ten months together. A few weeks after they broke up -- Sarah initiated the split -- she called to say that she was pregnant. "It's mine?" asked Affenlight. "He or she," replied Sarah, "is mostly mine." They named the child Pella -- that was Affenlight's idea, though Sarah certainly had the final say. For those first couple of years, Affenlight conspired as often as he could to show up at Sarah and Pella's Kendall Square townhouse with expensive takeout and a new toy. He was fascinated with his daughter, with the sheer reality of her, a beautiful something where before there'd been nothing. He hated kissing her good-bye; and yet he relished, couldn't keep himself from relishing, the total quiet of his townhouse when he walked in, the scattered books and papers and lack of baby-proofing. ↗

— Chad Harbach

#so-called-romance #art

If we are to survive, we must have ideas, vision, and courage. These things are rarely produced by committees. Everything that matters in our intellectual and moral life begins with an individual confronting his own mind and conscience in a room by himself. ↗

— Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

#committees #confronting #conscience #courage #everything

Though no one can go back and make a brand-new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand-new ending. ↗

— Carl Bard

#endings #inspirational #new-start #inspirational

There's a story behind everything..but behind all your stories is always your mother's story..because hers is where yours begins. ↗

— Mitch Albom

#life #mother #story #life

Elephants can sense danger. They're able to detect an approaching tsunami or earthquake before it hits. Unfortunately, Jack did not have this talent. The day his life was turned completely upside down, he was caught unaware. ↗

— Jennifer Richard Jacobson

#elephants #life

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop. ↗

— H. L. Mencken

#begin #easy #hard #like #love is

But the crowds are surging around them and her backpack is heavy on her shoulders and the boy's eyes are searching hers with something like loneliness , like the very last thing he wants is to be left behind right now. And that's something Hadley can understand, too, and so after a moment she nods in agreement, and he tips the suitcase forward onto it's wheels, and they begin to walk. ↗

— Jennifer E. Smith

#understanding #love

There is freedom in stepping out and taking risks when you know at any given moment, you can always begin again. ↗

— Eva Gregory

#begin #freedom #risks #freedom