Christian Alexander > Christian's Quotes

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium; and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
― Martha Graham

“I give the fight up: let there be an end,
A privacy, an obscure nook for me.
I want to be forgotten even by God.”
― Robert Browning, Paracelus

“It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.”
― Bertrand Russell

“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman's Odyssey

“There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.”
― Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language

“All courses of action are risky, so prudence is not in avoiding danger (it's impossible), but calculating risk and acting decisively. Make mistakes of ambition and not mistakes of sloth. Develop the strength to do bold things, not the strength to suffer.”
― Niccolo Machiavelli

“Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“You can always edit a bad page. You can't edit a blank page.”
― Jodi Picoult

“Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα,δε φοβάμαι τίποτα, είμαι ελεύθερος.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”
― douglas adams, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”
― Albert Camus

“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”
― John Powell

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”
― Mark Twain, Mark Twain's Own Autobiography: The Chapters from the North American Review

“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.”
― Richard P. Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character

“Collections do not leave the collector unaffected. The art of collecting results in a certain turn of mind.”
― Douglas Wilson, Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.”
― Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle

“No power so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”
― Edmund Burke