“I believe that any man's life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life–that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful living.”— Booker T. Washington, amazon.com
“If two men are riding on one horse, one must naturally ride behind.”— William Shakespeare, amazon.com
“We act as if we don't know that awful things happen to all sorts of people every second of every day and the only thing that's changed about the world or the existence or nonexistence of God or the color of the sky is that the awful thing is happening to us.”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.com
“There is no why. You don't have a right to the cards you believe you should have been dealt. You have an obligation to play the hell out of the ones you're holding. And, dear one, you and I both were granted a mighty generous hand.”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.com
“She had to do more than hold on. She had to reach. She had to want it more than she'd ever wanted anything. She had to grab like a drowning girl for every good thing that came her way and she had to swim like fuck away from every bad thing. She had to count the years and let them roll by, to grow up…”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.com
“You aren't afraid of love. You're afraid of all the junk you've yoked to love. And you've convinced yourself that withholding one tiny word from the woman you think you love will shield you from that junk. But it won. We are obligated to the people we care about and who we allow to care about us, wh…”— Cheryl Strayed, amazon.com
“The sea is a different sort of enemy. Unlike the land, where courage and the simple will to endure can often see a man through, the struggle against the sea is an act of physical combat, and there is no escape. It is a battle against a tireless enemy in which man never actually wins; the most that h…”— Alfred Lansing, amazon.com
“We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4am of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is goin…”— Joan Didion, amazon.com
“There's more to you than mere money-lust, Duddy, but I'm afraid for you. You're two people that's why. The scheming little bastard I saw so easily, and the fine, intelligent boy underneath that your grandfather, bless him, saw. But you're coming of age soon and you'll have to choose. A boy can be tw…”— Mordecai Richler, amazon.com
“It's a battlefield, he thought, it sure is. But you and I, Duddy, we're officers, and that makes it harder. We're captains of our souls, so to speak, and they're the cabin boys.”— Mordecai Richler, amazon.com
“Duddy, it's not easy to earn a living. If you went out in the trade and asked about me there are lots of men who would tell you Cohen is a lousy son of a bitch. You think I've never had troubles? You think you run a scrap yard for twenty-five years next September without accidents or lawsuits or und…”— Mordecai Richler, amazon.com
“When nature removes a great man, people explore the horizon for a successor; but none comes and none will. His glass is extinguished with him. In some other and quite different field, the next man will appear not Jefferson, not Franklin, but now a great salesman; then a road-contractor then a studen…”— Ralph Waldo Emerson, amazon.com
“No race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized.”— Booker T. Washington, amazon.com
“The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make him way regardless of race.”— Booker T. Washington, amazon.com
“I make it a rule never to let my work drive me, but to so master it, and keep it in such complete control, and to keep so far ahead of it, that I will be the master instead of the servant.”— Booker T. Washington, amazon.com
“I am often asked how, in the midst of so much work, a large part of which is before the public, I can find time for any rest or recreation, and what kind of recreation or sports I am fond of. This is rather a difficult question to answer. I have a strong feeling that every individual owes it to hims…”— Booker T. Washington, amazon.com