Tuesday 23rd July 2013

Here are a few inspirational quotes that I either really like or really got me thinking. I hope you get something out of them too:

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions. Their lives a mimicry. Their passions a quotation. — Oscar Wilde

(^this really reminds me of the whole "hipster" phenomenon and depressingly the concept that "there is no such thing as an original idea".)

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education-Mark Twain

(^I guess this is what annoys me about school; the fact that there is no freedom in the learning; you are taught what is on the curriculum. Maybe it is up to the student themselves to go out and expand and develop their own learning experience. I guess I feel my educational path was almost decided for me, without no help, guidance or awareness provided as to the alternative. Don't get me wrong, university has been an amazing experience and one that I am glad that I have done, but possibly more in the sense that it provided an opportunity to see a different part of my country and meet new people, rather then in an educational sense. It was pretty darn stressful.)

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. — Plato

Some cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go. ― Oscar Wilde

Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money. — Indian Proverb

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. ― John Lennon

 Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. ― Albert Einstein

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. – Lao Tzu

Dalai Llama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, said: “ Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

(^I think this one sums up what I'm trying to avoid as I am about to step over the edge and into the unknown world of work.)

I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off ― Chuck Palahniuk

(^This really reminds me of the student boom we currently have at the moment. Everyone is offered the opportunity to go to university (and I guess rightly so), but with it comes unrealistic promises of enhanced employment prospects, when really a focus should maybe be on providing alternative options for the individual school-leaver, saving them from a future of acquired and ever-increasing student debt. ....Also, having another read of it, on another level I guess it is all just about STUFF. At the moment we all just live and work to acquire more things. The things we have define who we are. Why? Why can't the person inside be who you are? Surely that is who you really are. All these products are just a superficial mask that is hiding your true identity. When will it stop? Will this 'hang-up' on consumerism and the possession of just 'things' just keep going? Bring back substance and personality. Things that truly matter.)

The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are. ― HL Mencken