Sunday, April 6, 2014

Inspirational quotes (Part 17)

“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”- Aristotle

“Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.”-Thomas Merton, “No Man is an Island.”

“The only person who can control your happiness is yourself, and every person has their own way of fulfilling their happiness and self-expression.”- Kim Holt, McMaster University graduate.   “Got something up your sleeve?” article in Metro on Oct. 16, 2013 (It was about tattoos).

“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.” ~ Lao Tzu

“Whining about the one’s past is the beginning of a lack of future.”-Der Kaiser, fashion designer.  The Globe and Mail article “Will the real Karl Lagerfeld please stand up?” by Sarah Hampson on Oct. 19, 2013

"My roommate will change the world, she just doesn't know it yet." – Post Secret, Nov. 23, 2013

“I do know what love is.  Love is the most important thing in the world.  It gives us freedom, passion and emotion, it helps us understand the deeper meaning of things.  Music has a way of conveying that better than anything else.” –Mick Jones from the band Foreigners.  “Everything they sing, they sing it for you” article by Neil McCormick in the London Daily Telegraph

“Fans have connected to the lyrics.  They have told me they have been through tough times and couldn’t have gotten through that without one of my songs.  A security guard grabbed me at a club I was playing.  At first I thought, ‘Here we go, I’m getting kicked out’ but he told me he listened to my song Better Days and was thinking about ending his life until he heard that song.” –Pete Murray in the Metro on Dec. 5, 2013 

Religion is supposed to be about the loss of the ego, not about its eternal survival. @KarenAnchorite (Karen Armstrong)

Mr. Devlin-Braswell @DevlinHuxtable
The real purpose of religion is to let yourself go. Not just to get u to heaven. It propels u toward others in compassion
Religion is supposed to be about the loss of the ego, not about its eternal survival. @KarenAnchorite #SuperSoulSunday

'Spirituality is not religion!' It means I am connected! #SuperSoulSunday

"You can't fill the hole in your heart. You have to make your hearts bigger than the loss. Make decisions out of love." #supersoulsunday
Lonnel Williams@3LWTV @Oprah I really believe that gratitude is the sustenance that nurtures infinite blessings. #SuperSoulSunday
“For to be free is to not merely cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”  - Nelson Mandela
“This is my advice to people, learn how to cook, try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless and above all have fun.”-Julia Child

“Our biological rhythms are the symphony of the cosmos, music embedded deep within us to which we dance, even when we can’t name the tune.”-Deepak Chopra

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”-Angela Schwindt

“Motivation is what gets you started.  Habit is what keeps you going.” –Jim Ryan

“The earth laughs in flowers.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reigns.” –Benjamin Franklin

“It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do.”- Baptiste Moliere

“To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality.  It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.”- Henri Cartier-Bresson

“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.”-Eudora Welty

“People are like bicycles.  They can keep their balance only as they keep moving.”-Albert Einstein (in a letter to his son Eduard on Feb. 5, 1930.)

“It is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.”- Theo in The Goldfinch by Donna Tart.  The Globe and Mail book review by Marjorie Celona in Oct. 19, 2013

The human heart, at whatever age, open only to the heart that opens in the return. ”
    Marie Edgeworth

“Education leads to change.  It’s a long process, but it has to begin now.”- Janique Gagnon.  She is an Ottawa children’s hospital nurse is with Doctors Without Borders.  Metro article “Great suffering, enormous need” on Dec. 6, 2013.

 A bad attitude is by the far the worst handicap one can have.”- George Egbuonu, author of the book – How To Get A Job In 30 Days Or Less!
“Try hard to find out what you’re good at and what your passions are, and where the two converge, and build your life around that.”-Joshua Lederberg

"These disenfranchised voters are people who will tell you that experience isn't everything, and that, when you lack experience, you're forced to be more thoughtful, to have clear and inspiring ideas, and channel your confidence from these virtues." -Omar Mouallem in Metro on Oct. 18 about Edmonton mayor elections

“It’s an exciting and powerful position, to create your own life, to choose what to spend time on, what to learn, what to become good at.”- Kate Carraway in the Globe and Mail article “Struggling with the guilt of not having enough ‘woman skills’” on Jan. 10, 2014.

“Having fun is good for business: It is so important to like what you do.  It’s something to consider as you are growing in your career.  Liking your work makes you motivated, it makes you work harder and it can carry you when other things aren’t going well.  Enjoying my career has been part of what has made me successful and I try to create a positive environment so that everybody who I work with can feel that same sense of positivity.” – John Betts, owner of McDonald’s Canada since 2008.  The Globe and Mail article on Jan. 20, 2014

What’s the significance of the bracelet’s arrow charm?

The arrow represents the symbol of truth and justice and the idea of forward movement and of breaking walls and boundaries as a way to create change.

These days, people drink juice more expensive than this bracelet.

There’s no reason not be wearing it.  And that was the initial conversation roughly two years ago- the idea of (something) being so accessible that there is no barrier to entry.  The only way you can make change is if you do it together.  It’s not something you can do alone.” –Waris Ahluwalia, House of Waris jewelry designer/ actor/ model.  The Globe and Mail article on Feb. 1, 2014 about his friendship bracelet for ALDO’s #FriendsFight campaign.  Proceeds of the $5 piece benefit Partners in Health’s HIV/ AIDs initiatives.

Writing

“I’ve worked in movies and TV most of my life.  I’ve always paid attention to how the media influences and impacts people.  Especially in the last few years, I’ve been hearing people say ‘If only my life were like that movie,’ or ‘If only I had somebody like your character in the movie.’  I think it’s worth poking fun at.  It’s a problem.  Real life is not as simple as that.  It’s a million times more beautiful, with details and nuances that you’ll miss- you’ll miss them- if you’re busy comparing your life to these simple stories that you from a screen.” –Joseph Gordon- Levitt.  The Globe and Mail article “Obsessions that go beyond skin- deep” by Johanna Schneller on Sept. 28, 2013

“I’m a big believer in chemistry in every definition of the word, in life and in performance.  I can screw up a lot of things, but I have to pick the right actors and they have to have chemistry.  It all goes back to a piece of advice my father gave me before I made my first film: ‘Your job is not make things funny or tense.  Your job is to find truth on a daily basis.  You have to write a screenplay that you think is funny or tense or dramatic, but once you get to set, the whole job is, ‘Does this feel honest?’ 

Storytelling in general is a self-discovery masquerading as entertainment.  The best stories are bound to address the things that confound us the most.”- Jason Reitman, director.  “Give me people who are challenged” The Globe and Mail article by Johanna Schneller on Feb. 1, 2014

From a book review called “The many faces of fate” by Marissa Stapley.  She reviews the book The Figures of Beauty by David MacFarlane on Oct. 26, 2013:

“What happens to Oliver is what we all fear, that a path not taken can lead to a lifetime of regret. I sympathized. It’s so hard to know – what if the path itself leads to regret? (And, some might argue, all paths lead to it. Most people spend their lives looking back at what they didn’t do rather than celebrating what they did.)

Maybe if we think of ourselves as special we can actually be special, instead of allowing ourselves to be bound by the conventions she so disdains, instead of doing the things we think we should be doing, the things that dull us in the end.

“It is up to all of us to know what we most love,” he writes to Teresa, the daughter who seeks him out when she is 40, and the narrator of the book. “Youth is no excuse for turning away from it. Nor is responsibility.”
With The Figures of Beauty, Macfarlane traces a complex tale across pages that span huge tracts of time and distance. He takes away all hope, then chips purpose out of stone. Tragedy, he suggests, is never pointless. And every single person, and every single thing, has a story. It’s worth going down a lot of meandering paths to find out what those stories are.

“I mean regret seems pointless.  It’s not a useful emotion really, although it’s always there sort of lingering around.  If you’re willing to go sit on the stoop with regret, it’ll hang out with you, but it’s a waste of time.  So it (his movie I’m Still Here) didn’t perform that well, but neither did Jesse James, and I love that movie.  So often movies don’t perform well.  Life goes on, you know.  I feel pretty blessed to just be doing this.

And look at me now, you know, I get to work with Christian Bale, Scott Cooper and Forest Whitake and Woody Harrelson and on and on and on.” –Casey Affleck on his movie Out of the Furnace, in Metro Dec. 5, 2013

“In those letters, she works out the thought that if we do not escape from ourselves- from our personal world of wants and fears- we live in darkness.”  A book review by William Bryant Logan who reviews A Prayer Journal by Flannery O’Conner.  The Globe and Mail on Dec. 14, 2013

“But one thing she (Alice Munro) said struck me as particularly profound.  Our parents, our grandparents, couldn’t have done this, she told me.  They simply could not have written books.  Not that they wouldn’t have had the ability- they may or may no have had that- but they simply wouldn’t have had the opportunity.

She was referring, of course, to our rural forebears, an ancestry that we shared.  She was referring to people who hours were filled with physical labour, men and women who one way or another had carved their lives out of the land.”- Globe and Mail article called “Munro and Me” by Jane Urquhart on Dec. 14, 2013

“I remember being on The Hunger Games, and when you’re an actor you don’t ever think, or at least I hope you don’t think, that your job is really important.”  One day, however, the actress met a teen extra who was covered in scars from a burn incident.  “I remember her coming up to me and telling me that she was too self-conscious to go to school,” said Lawrence.

The girl said after she read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire, she felt proud of her scars and she felt brave enough to return to school where her friends started calling her the girl on fire.  “Afterward, I remember crying and calling my mom, and saying, ‘I kind of get it,’” said Lawrence. “And I still can’t tell the story without tearing up.” –Jennifer Lawrence in the article “Lawrence follows her own path” by Bob Thompson on Nov. 15, 2013.

“Television is a place where you can tell a great story.  You have the time.  AMC coined the phrase, Slow Burn Storytelling.  You have the time to develop characters, develop storylines in a way that is not artificial.  Or doesn’t seem to be artificial. 

There seems to be an obsession with not just speculative fiction but stuff that is not our real life.  I couldn’t say why, except to think that perhaps we’re so unhappy with our present lives.  We might need to get away.  We might need to get away.  Some people like to escape by being scared.” –Billy Campbell on his TV show Helix in the Metro on Jan. 7, 2014

"I don't invent characters. I invite strangers. Out of my subconscious.  Then cut them slack, to see what they'll do."-@greatdismal (William Gibson)

"This is really a chance to continue what you would call social-benefit storytelling, the idea of using archetypal narrative to create and promote a positive energy in the world.  As storytellers, we want to reserve the right to say there is some other idea floating above it, something spiritual or supernatural."- Tim Kring about his TV show Touch


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