People are wasteful, they waste all the food, people are hateful and people are rude. But god, I love some people sometimes, because people are very very special. And people are impatient, they don’t know how to wait. And people are selfish, people are prone to hate. But God, I love some people sometimes, because people are the greatest thing to happen. And people are people, regardless of skin. And people are people, regardless of creed. People are people regardless of gender, people are people, regardless of anything. And people are my religion, because I believe in them. People are my enemies and people are my friends. I have faith in my fellow man and I only hope that he has faith in me.
Sean Bonnette,  Andrew Jackson Jihad
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
Mother Teresa
It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was dancing with me, like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember and I need to remember. Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart’s going to cave in.
American Beauty (1999)
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery. celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.
Jim Jarmusch
Talk about wrong priorities. We live in a country that has a National Spelling Bee. We actually give prizes for spelling! But when’s the last time you heard about a thinking bee? Or a reasoning bee? Maybe an ethics bee? Never. Did you know the only people in our culture who are taught about ethics are a handful of college students? Then they graduate and work for large corporations. So much for ethics training. Ethics and values should be taught early in grade school, not in college when the child has already been spiritually warped and perverted by his parents, friends, religion, and television set.
George Carlin (via maxistentialist)
I do not like my state of mind;
I’m bitter, querulous, unkind.
I hate my legs, I hate my hands,
I do not yearn for lovelier lands.
I dread the dawn’s recurrent light;
I hate to go to bed at night.
I snoot at simple, earnest folk.
I cannot take the simplest joke.
I find no peace in paint or type.
My world is but a lot of tripe.
I’m disillusioned, empty-breasted.
For what I think, I’d be arrested.
I am not sick. I am not well.
My quondam dreams are shot to hell.
My soul is crushed, my spirit sore:
I do not like me any more.
I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.
I ponder on the narrow house.
I shudder at the thought of men.
I’m due to fall in love again.
Symptom Recital by Dorothy Parker
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson