I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

Khalil Gibran

It is an interesting sidelight that our language—created and codified by men—does not have one unflattering term to describe men who vent their anger at women. Even such epithets as "bastard" and "son of a bitch" do not condemn the man but place the blame on a woman.

—Harriet Lerner, from The Dance of Anger

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” ― William Jennings Bryan

“There are winds of destiny that blow when we least expect them. Sometimes they gust with the fury of a hurricane, sometimes they barely fan one’s cheek. But the winds cannot be denied, bringing as they often do a future that is impossible to ignore.” ― Nicholas Sparks

“Even if things don't unfold the way you expected, don't be disheartened or give up. One who continues to advance will win in the end.” ― Daisaku Ikeda

“Sometimes, being true to yourself means changing your mind. Self changes, and you follow.” ― Vera Nazarian

“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” ― Andy Warhol

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” ― Rumi

"Forgiveness is the economy of the heart, forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, and the waste of spirits." - Hannah More

"A friend should be one in whose understanding and virtue we can equally confide, and whose opinion we can value at once for its justness and its sincerity." - Robert Hall

"Do not judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.
-Susan Sontag

"You can never make the same mistake twice because the second time you make it, it's not a mistake, it's a choice."

"A rat can taste like pumpkin pie, but it doesn't change (the fact) that you are kissing a rat"(My Mum)

“If you care about what people think about you, you will end up being their slave. Reject and pull your own rope.” ― Auliq Ice

“To be careless in making decisions is to naively believe that a single decision impacts nothing more than that single decision, for a single decision can spawn a thousand others that were entirely unnecessary or it can bring peace to a thousand places we never knew existed.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“In the changing weather of life, rather than drift with the currents or be cast about in storms, be the wind at your own back.” ― Gina Greenlee

The Black Lives Matter Movement isn’t a plea for pity, or an appeal to comity, but an exercise in personal and collective advocacy by an oppressed people.

It says to America: You will not dictate the parameters of my expression; you will not assign the grammar of my pain; you will not tell me how I should feel. For these young activists, it’s not ideological but existential; it’s not about a political field but a battlefield, one from which they cannot escape, one on which their very bodies are marked and threatened with destruction.

This is not an esoteric, intellectual debate about best practices, but quite literally a flesh and blood struggle for equal access to liberty and longevity.

– Charles M. Blow, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist

“You cannot be with someone just because you don’t want to hurt him. You have your own happiness to think about.” ― Melissa de la Cruz

“Sometimes one has suffered enough to have the right to never say: I am too happy.” ― Alexandre Dumas

“Something amazing happens when you're in love and don't give a damn about what day it is anymore.” ― Chad Sugg

Sometimes when you fail, it allows you the opportunity to grow more motivation and get more intense about your training.

Abby Wambach

Sometimes, only one person is missing, and the whole world seems depopulated.
Alphonse de Lamartine