i'd settle for a slow down.

If we had any nerve at all, If we had any real balls as a society, or whatever you need, whatever quality you need, real character, we would make an effort to really address the wrongs in this society, righteously. I wish you could turn off the questions, turn off the voices, turn off all sound. Learn to close out the ugliness, close out the filthiness, close out all light. Long to cast away yesterday, cast away memory, cast away all jeapordy. Pray you could somehow stop uncertainty, somehow stop the loathing, somehow stop the pain. We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

When you see things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When you see things as good, other things become bad. Being and non-being create each other. Difficult and easy support each other. Long and short define each other. High and low depend on each other. Before and after follow each other. Therefore, act without doing, and teach without saying. Things arise; let them come. Things disappear; let them go. Have, but don't posess. Act, but don't expect. When your work is done, forget it. That is why it will last forever.

You have to learn the rules of the game, then play it better than everyone else.

It does not count if you believe in yourself when it's easy to believe in yourself. It does not count if you believe the world can be a better place when the future looks bright. It does not count if you think you're going to make it when the finish line is right in front of you. It counts when it's hard to believe in yourself, when it looks like the world's going to end, and you've still got a long way to go. That's when it counts. That's when it matters the most.

In life we do things. Some we wish we had never done, some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads. But they all make us who we are. Maybe we are meant to meet the wrong people before meeting the right one so that when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift. Maybe it is true that we don't know what we have until we lose it, but it is also true that we don't know what we have been missing until it arrives. Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. Happiness lies for those who cry, those who hurt, those who have searched, and those who have tried. For only they can appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. I figure life's a gift and I don't intend on wasting it. You don't know what hand you're going to deal with next. You learn to take life as it comes at you, to make each day count. You can find good in anybody. If you give them a chance, benefit of a doubt, sometimes people disappoint you, sometimes they surprise you, but you never really get to know them until you listen to what's in their heart. Why give people the satisfaction of letting them get the best of you, when you clearly know that they envy and want to be you. You should feel bad that they are pathetic to want to live their lives through your downfall. People are too weak to follow their own dreams and will find every way possible to try and discourage yours. It's a natural thing. Don't curse it; bless it, because these pathetic losers encourage my conceit.

You only see what I choose to show you.

The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it's only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on. Life is the ability to feel so happy, you think your insides are going to explode. It's being so upset or disappointed, you feel as if your stomach just dropped ten feet out of place. It's running so hard, you can barely breathe. It's the feeling of panic when you know you've been caught doing something wrong. It's having that sudden rush before you kiss someone you care about. It's opening your eyes and feeling them sting because you spent the whole night crying. It's letting people go because new ones come in, and all the while realizing that life doesn't have a purpose unless you let it.


People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind. Think big anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack if you help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you might get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.

It is what it is. Unless it isn't.

The early bird catches the worm; a stitch in time saves nine. He who hesitates is lost. We can't pretend we haven't been told. We've all heard the proverbs, heard the philosophers, heard our grandparents warning us about wasted time, heard the damn poets urging us to 'seize the day'. Still sometimes we have to see for ourselves. We have to make our own mistakes. We have to learn our own lessons. We have to sweep today's possibility under tomorrow's rug until we can't anymore, until we finally understand for ourselves like Benjamin Franklin meant. That knowing is better than wondering, that waking is better than sleeping. And that even the biggest failure, even the worst most intractable mistake beats the hell out of never trying.


I want to laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayel of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

love.

Don't settle for anything less than someone who loves you. Don't love when you're lonely, love when you're ready. Don't think that it happens all the time, either. Love isn't the small scene of romance you're exposed to as a teenager. It's far different, far more real. Real love is hard to come by, but it comes. Maybe not for a while, but it shows up at some point. All of us are loved, but sometimes that person you want isn't in your life yet. Don't worry. They will be. Just stop waiting for it.