Words

(Things I have borrowed, begged, and stolen from books, movies, conversations with friends)

 

Create or Die. —Wade Hampton

God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. —Emerson

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. —MLK

The dream is free, the hustle is sold separately. —George “GK” Koufalis (thanks to The Reminders)

If you do it for anyone other than yourself, it will destroy you. —Henry Rollins

Fear creates confusion, courage creates clarity. —Terry Crews

The art that people respond to is the art that HAD to be made, not stuff that was targeted. —Sam Jones interviewing Jason Isbell

Don’t sing it, BRING IT! 🙂 —Staci Mack

He who hesitates will be bossed. —Rod Steiger

Hope is more important than test scores. —J. H. Bryant

When emotional resources are absent the slide into poverty is almost guaranteed. —Ruby K. Payne

Faith sees best in the dark.

I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things. —Tom Waits

Sometimes in a band it can feel as though you’re together because you collectively suffer from some kind of psychological disease none of you can name or even acknowledge. Logic proceeds from a kind of group psychosis, but the force of the collective makes everything work. You’re like a family who does what they do for ingrained, habitual reasons, except no one remembers why or what started the behavior. A band almost defines the world dysfunction, except that rather than explaining your motivations or discussing anything, you play music acting out your issues via adrenaline. —Kim Gordon

You put stuff in the world, and you hope. —David Simon

This cannot be a team of common men because common men go nowhere. You have to be uncommon. —Kurt Russell in Miracle

Be a meaningful specific, not a wandering generality. —Zig

Your dreams coming true does not change your feelings. —Rob Lowe

Overthinking—the art of creating problems that don’t exist. (Thanks, Deb T.)

I’m routinely appalled by how profoundly ignorant even highly educated people are when it comes to the structure and function of our government. The sense of identity as Citizen has been replaced by Consumer. The idea that the government should serve the citizens like a waiter or concierge, rather than in like a “collective good” sense. —Kathy Sullivan from Michael Lewis’ The Fifth Risk

Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds. —Elie Wiesel

I and the public know / What all schoolchildren learn, / Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return. —W. H. Auden

Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one. — Sting

You should be jealous when you hear great records. Do to others what great artists did to you. —Daniel Lanois

You are responsible. For life to get better, YOU gotta get better. —Jim Rohn

You can go anywhere in black and white. —Tony Bennett

If the artist doesn’t give a shit, why should the audience? —Tony Bennett

We don’t even ask happiness, just a little less pain. —Charles Bukowski

Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else? If contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways isn’t motivating, what would be? If being the number one contributor to the most serious threat facing the planet (global warming) isn’t enough, what is? And if you are tempted to put off these questions of conscience, to say not now, then when? —Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand. —Spinoza

The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. —Jackson Pollack

You’ll be raking grass while I’m raking cash. —Little Joe C

The worship of the garage comes from people who never started out in one or can’t get out of it. —Bono

You’re in a band, That’s lucky. I went through this on my own. —Dylan to Bono

There are people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who wonder what happened. Don’t be the last one. —Marc Newman

Ain’t no time to hesitate at the gate, do it NOW. —Mos Def

Growth ain’t easy, that’s why so few people do it.

Worry is paying interest on a loan you didn’t get. —The Doc

No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear. —Edmond Burke

If I’m gonna go down, I want to go down clear-eyed.— Leonard Cohen

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