Olivia > Olivia's Quotes

“Alice had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

“Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves.”
― Lewis Carroll, The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition

“It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

“She felt a little nervous about this; 'for it might end, you know,' said Alice to herself, 'in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

“,"I am not crazy, my reality is just different from yours."-Cheshire Cat”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: With an Excerpt from the Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll

“may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back”
― Lucille Clifton

“Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.”
― Lucille Clifton

“Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
― George Bernard Shaw

“The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor: he took my measure anew every time he saw me, whilst all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.”
― George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
― Franz Kafka

“There is an infinite amount of hope in the universe ... but not for us.”
― Franz Kafka

“I’m tired, can’t think of anything and want only to lay my face in your lap, feel your hand on my head and remain like that through all eternity.”
― Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself—and there isn't one.”
― Chris Niebauer, No Self, No Problem: How Neuropsychology Is Catching Up to Buddhism

“El mundo hay que fabricárselo uno mismo, hay que crear peldaños que te suban, que te saquen del pozo. Hay que inventar la vida porque acaba siendo verdad”
― Ana María Matute

“Eleanor went to her room "where she was free to think and be wretched.”
― Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

“Time Does Not Bring Relief

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year’s bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go,—so with his memory they brim.
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, “There is no memory of him here!”
And so stand stricken, so remembering him.”
― Edna St. Vincent Millay, Collected Poems

“Real poetry, is to lead a beautiful life. To live poetry is better than to write it.”
― Basho

“Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise; seek what they sought.”
― Matsuo Bashō

“The journey itself is my home.”
― Matsuo Basho

“Moon almost full I’m thirty-nine a child still”
― Matsuo Bashō, Moon Woke Me Up Nine Times: Selected Haiku of Basho

“Come, let’s go
snow-viewing
till we’re buried.”
― Matsuo Bashō, On Love and Barley: Haiku of Basho

“all streams flow to the sea because it is lower than they are. humility gives it its power. if you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. if you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Close your mouth,
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching: A Literal Translation With an Introduction, Notes, and Commentary

“When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Have the patience to wait! Be still and allow the mud to settle.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Success is as dangerous as failure.
Hope is as hollow as fear.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“To bear and not to own; to act and not lay claim; to do the work and let it go: for just letting it go is what makes it stay.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“The world belongs to those who let go.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“As a consequence of natural analgesic actions or as a result of the administration of drugs that interfere with body signaling (painkillers, anesthetics), the brain receives a distorted view of what the body state really is at the moment. We know that in situations of fear in which the brain chooses the running option rather than freezing, the brain stem disengages the part of the pain-transmission circuitry, a bit like pulling the plug. The periqueductal gray, which controls these responses, can also command the secretion of natural opioids and achieve precisely what taking an analgesic would achieve -- elimination of pain signals.
In the strict sense, we are dealing here with a hallucination of the body because what the brain registers in its maps and the conscious mind feels do not correspond to the reality that might be perceived. Whenever we ingest molecules the have the power to modify the transmission or mapping of body signals, we play on this mechanism. Alcohol does it; so do analgesics and anesthetics, as well as countless drugs of abuse. It is patently clear that, other than out of curiousity, humans are drawn to such molecules because of their desire to generate feelings of well-being, feelings in which pain signals are obliterated and pleasure signals induced.”
― Antonio R. Damasio

“I am running into a new year and the old years blow back like a wind that I catch in my hair like strong fingers like all my old promises and it will be hard to let go of what I said to myself about myself when I was sixteen and twenty-six and thirty-six but I am running into a new year and I beg what i love and I leave to forgive me.”
― Lucille Clifton