Inspiration
Words, written by others, that inspire me to think, dream, change, challenge, make art, contemplate, and live life as completely as I can. This page will be evolving and added to periodically as I continue to find words of inspiration.
Listen; there’s a hell of a good universe next door: let’s go.~e. e. cummings
I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
~ Vincent Van Gogh
Stop this day and night with me, and you shall possess the origin of all poems; You shall possess the good of the earth and sun—(there are millions of suns left) You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books; You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me: You shall listen to all sides, and filter them from yourself.
~Walt Whitman
I learned I was not, as most Africans believed, the victim of my circumstances but the master of them.
~ Legson Kayira
I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.
~Vincent Van Gogh
I shut my eyes in order to see.
~Paul Gauguin
I believe the universe is one being; all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole … The whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it, and to think of it as divine. It seems to me that this whole alone is worthy of the deeper sort of love; and there is peace, freedom, I might say a kind of salvation, in turning one’s affections outward toward this one God; rather than inwards on one’s self, or on humanity, or on human imaginations and abstractions- the world of spirits.
~Robinson Jeffers
The forests are the flags of nature. They appeal to all and awaken inspiring universal feelings. Enter the forest and the boundaries of nations are forgotten. It may be that some time an immortal pine will be the flag of a united peaceful world.
~ Enos A. Mills
For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.
~ Henry Beston
Each day affirm that there is nothing in this world that can stop you from transforming your life, opening your heart, loving yourself, and sharing your love with everyone you encounter.
~Yogi Amrit Desai
When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
~Ansel Adams
The world is but a canvas to the imagination.
~Henry David Thoreau
Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.
~ Zora Neale Hurston
The lifetime crusade of your days must be to develop a new energy ethic to sustain life on earth. Cherish sunsets, wild creatures and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the earth.
~ Stewart Udall
May 27, 2008 at 8:42 pm
The Laughing Heart
by Charles Bukowski
your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.
May 28, 2008 at 7:34 am
Jake, I love Bukowski, and this is a great bit from him. Thanks for adding it here!