“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence .... (and that is) activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.” 

 - Thomas Merton (1915-1968) 
American Catholic writer, social activist, theologian, and mystic

"Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that.." ~ Sylvia Boorstein

"Your entire life is your artwork". 
  - Marianne Williamson

"When I have fears, as Keats had fears
 Of the moment I'll cease to be
I console myself with vanished years
Remembered laughter, remembered tears,
The peace of the changing sea
And remembered friends who are dead and gone.
How happy they are I cannot know
But happy am I who loved them so".

- Noel Coward

 (Text from a typed sheet in a display case at New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. "Star Quality: The World of Noel Coward". On display Summer 2012)

"Happy New Year 2010, to all you loyal 'and i quote blog' readers... After 2700+ posts, I'm pretty much retiring this little blog. There may come a time that I might throw on a new quote or two... But the day-to-day thing ends with the decade past. Feel free to browse the Archives on here or to use the Search box. You may also join me in 2010 and beyond on Postcards from Hell's Kitchen blog and/or on my ToddHellsKitch Twitter. profile"

Cheers,
Todd

"Don't long for the past or put off your life until the future. The time to live is now".
-- Ralph Marston

"You don't have to believe. Aren't you willing to believe that there is a reason for your life, even though you may not know yourself what that reason is, or that you may not sometimes know the right way to behave?"
~ Daily Reflections

"The flow of the universe and its perfect order has room to move in our lives when we get ourselves and our extraneous thoughts out of the way".
~~ Daily Om

"All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!"
~ Lucy Van Pelt (Peanuts)

"The moment you're in is plenty. The place where you are is an ideal place from which to move forward".
~ Ralph Marston

"Free your spirit by facing the unknown".

-- Dr. Wayne Dyer

"Imagination creates your world by simply and naturally directing the enormous creative energy that is your life"

-- Ralph Marston

"It is a skill to give readers what they wish to hear while claiming to present stark, unbiased truth".

-- Quentin Crisp

"Enjoy your own life without comparing it with that of another".
-- Condorcet

"Over achievers have a little more fear of missing out, of not being there, not contributing enough".
~ Tony Robbins

"What is it that drives a higly motivated over-achiever to look at his own potential destruction as excitement and as a potential release?"
~ John Mayer

"Stop seeking to classify and to judge every moment, and you'll start seeing each moment's unique treasure".
-- Ralph Marston

"There's one little corner of the world where you can make a difference right now. Go ahead and be the person to make that difference".
-- Ralph Marston

"When you learn what your weaknesses have to teach, they will become your strengths".
-- Ralph Marston

"Instead of making the stress worse by fighting it, step calmly and confidently forward to make the best of it".
~ Ralph Marston