#mina

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with? ↗

— Lance Armstrong

#pain #perseverance #quitting #life

The art of meditation is a way of getting into touch with reality, and the reason for it is that most civilized people are out of touch with reality because they confuse the world as it with the world as they think about it and talk about it and describe it. For on the one hand there is the real world and on the other there is a whole system of symbols about that world which we have in our minds. These are very very useful symbols, all civilization depends on them, but like all good things they have their disadvantages, and the principle disadvantage of symbols is that we confuse them with reality, just as we confuse money with actual wealth. ↗

— Alan Wilson Watts

#nominalism #reality #symbols #art

To be able to possess a machine in such a way is the ultimate show of determination and awareness. It makes one realize that the physicality of our world is a boundary to us only if our will is weak; a true champion can accomplish things that a normal person would think impossible. ↗

— Garth Stein

#determination #art

...I hide you inside me because I have found, beauty is the illumination of the mind... ↗

— John Geddes

#illumination #love #beauty

I thought you married me for my looks, my sensitivity, and my fabulous bedroom stamina." Carson said, "Lucky for you, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But I will acknowledge you really do an exhaustive job cleaning the bedroom. ↗

— Dean Koontz

#carson #michael #beauty

While teaching, I also worked undercover in the lower courts by saying I was a young law teacher wanting experience in criminal law. The judges were happy to assist me but what I learned was how corrupt the lower courts were. Judges were accepting money right in the courtroom. ↗

— Samuel Dash

#also #assist #corrupt #courtroom #courts

Lady Placida smiled. “History seldom takes note of serendipity when it records events. And from what I have heard, I suspect an argument could be made that you very much did earn the title.” “Many women have earned titles, Your Grace. It doesn't seem to have been a factor in whether or not they actually received them.” Lady Placida laughed. “True enough. But perhaps that is beginning to change.” She offered her hands. “It is a distinct pleasure to meet you, Steadholder. ↗

— Jim Butcher

#history #sff #wit #change

Violence has never prospered, you can't remake the world in a day. Anyone who promises to change everything for you all at once is either a fool or a rogue! ↗

— Émile Zola

#change

The very "least" among us has the enormous power to effect change through small acts of determination and will. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#change #determination #power #will #change

You believe in Destiny, don't you?" "Yes," said Leah quietly. "Then you have to believe that things happen for a reason, and even if you change something. Destiny will find a way to fulfill her needs." - Jasmine ↗

— Jacquelyn Frank

#predestination #predetermination #change