Quotations

"Beauty stands and waits with gravity to start her death-defying leap."

— Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American poet, born 1919

"There is an ecstatic mechanism in birds that makes them fly upwards in spite of worms."

— Lawrence Ferlinghetti, American poet, born 1919

"Confidence is 10% hard work and 90% delusion."

— Tina Fey, American comedian, born 1970

"I am constantly amazed by Tina Fey. And I am Tina Fey."

— Tina Fey, American comedian, born 1970

"Say yes and you'll figure it out afterwards."

— Tina Fey, American comedian, born 1970

"A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money."

— W. C. Fields, American actor, born 1880

"It’s morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money."

— W. C. Fields, American comedian, born 1880

"It may be that the strongest instinct of the human race, stronger than sex or hunger, is curiosity: the absolute need to know. It can and often does motivate a lifetime, it kills more than cats, and the prospect of satisfying it can be the most exciting of emotions."

— Jack Finney, American author, born 1911

"Would you have references? I'm awfully sorry but I haven't. I just arrived in New York, and don't know a soul. Except you. I smiled but she didn't smile back. She stood hesitating, and I said, It's true that I'm an escaped convict, an active counterfeiter, and occasional murderer. And I howl during the full of the moon. But I'm neat."

— Jack Finney, American author, born 1911

"I remember saying to myself those things are very, very important to hear, but there must be another way to say them so that they will truly be heard. I mean, that's what art is. Art is about being provocative. Art is also about beauty. And if you leave the latter out, the former doesn't matter."

— Nikky Finney, American poet, born 1957

"Meditation is doing what you are doing - whether you are doing formal meditation or child care."

— Norman Fischer, American Soto Zen roshi, born 1946

"We now see that the only way that we could love ourselves is by loving others, and the only way that we could truly love others is to love ourselves. The difference between self-love and love of others is very small, once we really understand."

— Norman Fischer, American Soto Zen roshi, born 1946

"Why would we have to know everything all the time? Why do we have to be so knowledgeable, so smart, so in control? We don’t! There’s no need to figure everything out. We can just be alive. We can breathe in and breathe out and let go and just trust our life, trust our body. Our body and our life know what to do. The problem is to let them do it, to relax and let them guide us."

— Norman Fischer, American Soto Zen roshi, born 1946

"The Bodhisattva body, the Buddha body, is the perfect eternal beautiful body hidden in the earthly body of impermanence and decay."

— Norman Fischer, American Soto Zen roshi, born 1946