swissmiss

“Play is the ultimate expression of freedom for its own sake.”
– David Graeber

“The kindest people are not born that way, they are made. They are the sounds that have experienced so much at the hands of life, they are the ones who have dug themselves out of the dark, who have fought to turn every loss into a lesson. The kindest people do not just exist – they choose to soften where circumstance has tried to harden them, they choose to believe in goodness, because they have seen firsthand why compassion is so necessary. They have seen firsthand why tenderness is so important in this world.”
– Bianca Sparacino

Love Bianca’s writing? Follow her on Instagram and check out her book A Gentle Reminder.

Update: Resurfacing this post from 2021 as I keep coming back to it. Good reminder.

“What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes?”
– Carl Jung

(via)

“Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all. When there’s a big disappointment, we don’t know if that’s the end of the story. It may just be the beginning of a great adventure. Life is like that. We don’t know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don’t know. ”
– Pema Chödrön

“Eye contact: how souls catch fire.”
— Yahia Lababidi

“For me, beauty is a physical sensation, something we feel with our whole body. It is not the result of judgement. We do not arrive at it by way of rules. We either feel beauty or we don’t.”
– Jorge Luis Borges

“Rather than feel impotent and useless, you must come to terms with the fact that as a human being you are infinitely powerful, and take responsibility for this tremendous power. Even our smallest actions have potential for great change, positively or negatively, and the way in which we all conduct ourselves within the world means something. You are anything but impotent, you are, in fact, exquisitely and frighteningly dynamic, as are we all, and with all respect you have an obligation to stand up and take responsibility for that potential. It is your most ordinary and urgent duty.”
– Nick Cave

(via Jocelyn)

“… Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life.”
– Hunter S. Thompson

Read the full quote here.

“Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful…be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency.”
– William S. Burroughs

“When people talk, listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out, know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice.”
– Ernest Hemingway

“When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying, ‘You’re too this, or I’m too this.’ That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”
– Ram Dass

“The body seems to feel beauty when exposed to it as it feels the campfire or sunshine, entering not by the eyes alone, but equally through all one’s flesh like radiant heat.”
– John Muir

“Love is what remains when all other emotions are gone.
– Naval Ravikant

“Safety is not a question of a lack of threat. Safety is the presence of connection.”
– Gabor Maté