Quality Quotes & Wise Words.
Hey guys! So for this blog post I thought I'd share some of my all-time favorite quotes with y'all, because sometimes all anyone needs to get them through the day is a good quote that speaks to them on some sort of level. At least I know I do. So if you're in need of a good quote, or maybe just like reading quotes like I do, here are some you might enjoy;
~ "My heart is in my mind, I think that is why I am an artist." - Nayyirah Waheed
I found this quote recently, but when I read it I immediately connected with it. Lately I've been getting back into what I like to call my "over-thinking spells", where I find myself over-thinking just about everything in my life to the point where my mind just wants to shut down and not be able to think anymore at all for a little while. I exhaust myself with how many times I find myself thinking through the same thing over and over again, and this quote reminded me of that. Every time I find myself having these really bad over-thinking spells, I find myself wanting to create art even more than usual, so for me I definitely think the two are connected. I let my heart control my mind and as a result I want to create art that represents this. (Ok yeah that was really dramatic but I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this).
~ "It's ok to take a break".
This is a really simple quote that I currently have as my phone lockscreen, actually. Being a recent college graduate with no solid path planned out for the next couple of years yet can be really daunting, especially since a lot of the people I graduated with often appear to have it "all figured out" and always have something to do as their "next step in life". But I know in reality this isn't the case, and I have to keep reminding myself that. It's perfectly ok to take a break. T0 take a break from what you normally do in your day to day life, to take a break from your daily routine, to take a break from your life and just sit back and reflect. There's nothing wrong with jumping from one thing to another if that's your thing, but if it's not, don't let people feel like you need to be rushing your life. There's nothing wrong with taking a break every once in a while.
~ "Your art is not about how many people like your work, your art is about if your heart likes your work, if your soul likes your work, it's about how honest you are with yourself, and you must never trade honesty for reliability." - Rupi Kaur
Rupi is seriously one of my all time favorites - I find myself repinning literally every quote by her ever whenever I see one on Pinterest. She truly has a way with words, everything she says is so eloquent and I admire it greatly. This quote for me kind of mixes the two quotes above together and it's definitely one of my all time faves.
~ "I'm fed up with Someday. Of always looking forward. Of wishing and waiting. Of concerning myself with the life I hope to happen over the one I am already living. I want to exist NOW. To be happy and satisfied here, with what I have and nothing else." - Beau Taplin, Someday
Every time I read this quote it stuns me all over again. One of the things I've heard the most in my life from people around me is "just wait a little bit", "just wait to do this and wait to do that", "yeah maybe someday", "yeah maybe on Monday, or sometime next week". Well, I'm tired of waiting. For the next day, or the next weekend, or the next month, or the next summer. I want to do things today, because as goddam cheesy as it sounds, you never know when it'll be your last day. Living in the moment is a lot easier said than done, and life does need some planning. Being happy is also a lot easier said than done and can't be forced or it won't be real. But don't get too caught up with life all the time, and trying to make every little thing perfect. Sometimes thinking about things for too long can actually make things worse or harder. Sometimes you just have to do, and be, and live your life before it's too late. Being patient with your life and yourself is one thing, but waiting around for things to happen and putting things off is another thing.
~ "I realized there is no shame in being honest, there is no shame in being vulnerable, it's the beauty of being human."
I feel like this one mostly speaks for itself, but yeah, this definitely relates to all the other quotes I've mentioned as well.
~ "Loneliness is a sign that you are in desperate need of yourself." - Rupi Kaur
Another Rupi quote that I can't get enough of. Again, being a recent college graduate who just moved away from the state she was living in during college, I think I'm starting to realize how much I was starting to depend on other people as the year was ending. Now, being away from it all, I feel pretty lonely, and it's not a good feeling. But I remember when I was ok by myself, ok with being alone, ok with a little loneliness every once in a while. Because being lonely doesn't necessarily have to be a completely bad thing. I guess I just need to start getting back into that state of mind, and realize that friends are great things to have, but that you have to be your own best friend first and you have to be there for yourself first. You can't sit around tearing yourself down when you're lonely because then you truly won't have anyone.
~ "The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply."
This is a bomb ass quote if you ask me, because I think it's so relevant to our time. No one listens to anyone anymore, we all just want to say what we want to say because we all want to be right about everything all the time. The only reason people listen to others is so that they are able to form a reply, but they fail to actually internalize and learn from what the other person said. Communication is key in life, and not enough of us do it right.
~ "We return to each other in waves. This is how water loves." - Nayyirah Waheed
Another Nayyirah quote. The way I interpret this one is that we don't always tell each other everything as humans. No one could possibly know everything that goes on in your mind except for yourself. So when we stop communicating with each other for a while, there are gaps in what we know about each other and how we connect with each other. And even when we try to go back and fill people in and fill in those gaps, no one will truly know all of what goes on inside your mind except for you. So I think of it like the waves of the ocean, returning to the shore every couple of seconds, kind of like how we as humans return to each other every once in a while to have human interactions, but it only comes in waves and can't possibly ever be completely consistent.
~ "If you can't beat fear, just do it scared." - Glennon Doyle Melton
I think this is a really good, non-cheesy way of saying "never give up", and I love it. "Never give up" is one of the most common "inspirational" quotes for a reason - because it's true, you should never give up, always keep pushing through, or try to anyway. But we as humans get tired of hearing the same thing over and over, and sometimes the inspirational spark that a certain phrase once had diminishes because of this. That's why I like quotes like these - because it brings the inspiration back into the phrase by saying the same thing in a slightly different way. I just think it's really cool how language works and how just a couple of words can have such a strong impact on someone.
~ "The mouth should have three gatekeepers. Is it true? Is it kind? And is it necessary?" - Arab Proverb
This one is really important to me. It's another one of those "saying the same thing but in a different way" type of quotes. Just think before you speak, man, it's as simple as that. There is no need in uttering something that isn't true and spreading rumors. There's also no need in being rude to someone and potentially ruining their day or week or year. And if there isn't even a reason for you to be saying what you're about to say, save your breath and just don't say it. Words hurt just as much as actions do, sometimes even more.
~ "If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
I think about this quote a lot. Mostly when I'm sitting around judging someone else for something they did, without even knowing the full story behind it. There is no way to properly define good or evil, because it may be different to everyone as weird as that sounds. Who's to say what's good and what's bad, or who's good and who's bad? We're all on this earth judging each other constantly, when we know we've all done at least a couple "bad" things ourselves. We're so obsessed as a human race, with finding the "bad people" and killing them or stopping them from being bad, but it's not at all that simple. It's just a funny concept to think about, really. We all act like it's so black and white, but nothing is.
~ "I have never met a rose that was too good to have any thorns."
This was a quote I heard at a spoken word poem reading one night at my college. Some students from Jackson State University came and read their spoken word to us, and this quote that a girl said really stood out to me, I don't think I'll ever forget it. It kind of relates to the above quote, because it says no matter how pretty and "perfect" you may be, you're definitely not so good that you don't have a single flaw. We're all imperfect beings, and the sooner we accept that, the more simple our lives will be. So to whoever wrote this quote, so sorry I never got your name and can't give you credit, but thank you so much for giving me this quote to think about because it seriously resonated with me. No credit to me for this quote, all credit to whoever wrote it!!!
Alright y'all, I think this post is starting to get a little long, so I'm gonna cut myself off for now, haha. I have A LOT more favorite quotes where that came from though, and I liked writing this post a lot, so I think I'm going to start making this a thing. Maybe I'll share a weekly quote with y'all and what I think about it/how it makes me feel, or maybe I'll do a monthly batch of quotes kind of like this post. We'll just have to see! Stay tuned and thanks for reading!