Other People and their Opinions
The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real.
-Thomas Merton
Depending on the circumstances, you should be as hard as a diamond, as flexible as a willow, as smooth-flowing as water, or as empty as space.
-Morihei Ueshiba
People
People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle ands hine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
-Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
ANYWAY
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People who really want help may attack you if you help them. Help them anyway. Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt. Give the world your best anyway.
-Mother Teresa, "Meditations from a Simple Path"
Who and Whoever
If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call, and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
-Stephen Levine