"The spiritual journey does not consist in arriving at a new destination where a person gains what he did not have, or becomes what he is not. It consists in the dissipation of one's own ignorance concerning one's self and life, and the gradual growth of that understanding which begins the spiritual awakening. The finding of God is a coming to one's self."
–– Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), English writer and philosopher
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 97
"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet."
–– Franz Kafka (1883-1924), Bohemian-born writer
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 86
The Final Analysis
"People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centred; 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 false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is all between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway."
–– Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), Albanian-born Indian Roman Catholic nun
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 61
"Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference."
–– Jane Goodall (b. 1934), English primatologist and anthropologist
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 157
"You must habit yourself to the dazzle of the light and of every moment of your life."
–– Walt Whitman (1819-1892), American writer
via Book of Commonplace 2020-present, p. 103
"I ask you to be open-minded: although it may take some trial and error, it is possible to find a routine that can begin to feel like a spiritual practice, opening you to guidance, energy, and creativity. Creating routines for yourself that comfort you will quiet your mind, and it is this quiet mind that allows inspiration to spring forth."
–– Julia Cameron (b. 1948), American writer
Source: Art Propelled October 5, 2020
via Book of Commonplace 2020-present, p. 101
"The best art is created in solitude, for good reason: it is only when we are alone that we can reach into ourselves and find truth, beauty, soul. Some of the most famous philosophers took daily walks, and it was on these walks that they found their deepest thoughts."
–– Leo Babauta, American writer
via Book of Commonplace 2020-present, p. 101
"The most valuable thing we can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room, not try to be or do anything whatever."
–– May Sarton (1912-1995), Belgian-born American writer
via Book of Commonplace 2020-present, p. 100
"The role of the artist ... and the poet is precisely to blur normal categories, to disrupt them, and by doing so restore to the eyes and the mind ingenuity and freshness."
–– Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) French painter and sculptor
Source: Nitch.com (via Instagram stories) April 7, 2021
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 104
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
–– Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German poet and philosopher
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 99
"Where we invest our attention, that is what we become. We want to be emerging more and more into openness and creative freedom. This means that we need to be investing unnecessarily in creating, investing in unnecessary creating."
–– Eric Booth, American author of The Everyday Work of Art
Source: Accidental Creative podcast, December 16, 2007
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 99
"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery."
–– Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Irish-born British painter
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 99
"The imagination needs moodling, –– long, inefficient happy idling, dawdling and puttering."
–– Brenda Ueland (1891-1985), American writer and journalist
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 98
"All things are possible until they are proved impossible –– and even the impossible may only be so, as of now."
–– Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), American writer
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 98
"You must act as if it is impossible to fail."
–– Ashanti Proverb
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 98
"Difficulties mastered are opportunities won."
–– Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British Prime Minister 1940-1945; 1951-1955
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 98
"What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence."
–– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British writer
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 98
"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something."
–– Frank Capra (1897-1991), Italian-born American film director, producer, and writer
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 97
"You can't have the light if you don't have the shadows."
–– Kenneth Lochhead (1926-2006), Canadian artist and educator
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 97
"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
–– Howard Thurman (1899-1981) American author, philosopher, theologian, and civil rights leader
via Book of Commonplace 2000-present, p. 97
"Being an artist, maybe more so than making art, gives you a way of thinking where you don't need all the other things that normally people would think necessary. It's a space where the mind and the self is at the centre. So in that way you can sustain yourself with very little."
–– Rikrit Tiravanija (b. 1961), Argentinian-born Thai contemporary artist
via Book of Commonplace 2020-present, p. 96-97
"When the forms of an old culture are dying, the new culture is created by a few people who are not afraid to be insecure."
–– Rudolf Bahro (1935-1997), German philosopher and author
via Book of Commonplace 2020-present, p. 96.
"If we, citizens, do not support our artists, then we sacrifice our imagination on the altar of crude reality and we end up believing in nothing and having worthless dreams."
–– Yann Martel (b. 1963), Spanish-born Canadian writer
Source: Yann Martel. Life of Pi. New York: Harcourt, 2001, p. xii.
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 41.
"Art disease is caused by a hardening of the categories."
–– Adina Reinhardt
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 38
"Service is the rent we pay for being in the world, a generosity that honours all people on this planet. To be grand means to give."
–– Hafsat Abiola (b. 1974), Nigerian human rights activist
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 21.
"The only solution for an artist is to change, not his work, but himself. Then his artistic conscience will require of him another kind of work."
–– Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), French philosopher
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 14.
"All great art is a visual form of prayer."
–– Sister Wendy (Wendy Mary Beckett) (1930-2018), British religious sister and art historian
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 13.
"When one door of happiness closes another opens, but often we look so hard at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened before us."
–– Helen Keller (1880-1968), American author, disability rights advocate, political activist, and lecturer
via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 4.
"A total lack of inspiration is a sign of laziness. There is simply too much available to deny anybody access. Laziness smothers inspiration and deprives its victims any sense of wonder by administering a self-defeating dose of itself. Lazy people should not garden because they end up demonstrating their nature publicly."
–– Thomas Hobbs, Canadian gardener and author
Source: Thomas Hobbs. Shocking Beauty. Boston: Periplus Editions, 1999, p. 4.
via Book of Commonplace 2003-2004, p. 80.
"I don't suppose you do know precisely what you are after. I don't think in the creative process anyone quite knows. They have a vague idea –– a beckoning, an inkling of some truth. It is only in the process that it comes to any clarity. Sometimes, indeed often, we work on a theme with an unformed idea, and when it has passed through the process, its final result is something we never could have predicted when we commenced."
–– Lawren Harris (1885-1970), Canadian landscape painter and member of the Group of Seven
via Book of Commonplace 2003-2004, p. 75.
