Quotes: Charles Bukowski

"Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?" 

–– Charles Bukowski (1920-1994), German-born, American author 

Quotes: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

"The objects we possess ... They tell us things about ourselves that we need to hear in order to keep ourselves from falling apart." 

–– Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-2021), Hungarian-American psychologist and author

Source: Austin Kleon newsletter, May 14, 2024

Quotes: Alan Lightman

"Downtime enables not only our creativity and our need for rest. It also enables the formation and maintenance of our deep sense of being and identity. ... Without downtime, we might not physically die, but we will die psychologically, emotionally, spiritually. In downtime, not only are we making sense of the events of the day, we are making sense of our lives." 

–– Alan Lightman (b. 1948), American physicist, writer, and social entrepreneur

Source: Alan Lightman. In Praise of Wasting Time. New York: TED Books, Simon and Schuster, 2018; p. 67-8. 

via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2022, p. 61. 

Quotes: Iris Apfel

"You don't find out who you are unless you work at it."

–– Iris Apfel (August 29, 1921- March 1, 2024), American entrepreneur and style icon 

Quotes: Friedrich Nietzsche

"Be careful, lest in fighting the dragon you become the dragon."

–– Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German poet and philosopher 

via: Commonplace Book 1999-2001, 2001.

Quotes: Patricia Lockwood

"Part of what you have to figure out in this life is, who would I be if I hadn't been frightened. What hurt me, and what would I be if it hadn't?" 

–– Patricia Lockwood (b. 1982), American poet, essayist, and novelist 

Source: Patricia Lockwood. Priestdaddy. New York: Riverhead Books, 2017; p. 326.

Quotes: James Baldwin

"Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety." 

–– James Baldwin (1924-1987), American writer and activist 

Quotes 235: José Ortega y Gasset

"Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are." 

–– José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), Spanish philosopher and essayist 

via Sketchbook # 26, p. 93