Quotes & Thought Provoking Words

Lover of creativity and life.

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Death Is Nothing at All

by Henry Scott Holland

Death is nothing at all.

I have only slipped away to the next room.

I am I and you are you.

Whatever we were to each other,

That, we still are.

Call me by my old familiar name.

Speak to me in the easy way

which you always used.

Put no difference into your tone.

Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

Laugh as we always laughed

at the little jokes we enjoyed together.

Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.

Let my name be ever the household word

that it always was.

Let it be spoken without effect.

Without the trace of a shadow on it.

Life means all that it ever meant.

It is the same that it ever was.

There is absolute unbroken continuity.

Why should I be out of mind

because I am out of sight?

I am but waiting for you.

For an interval.

Somewhere. Very near.

Just around the corner.

All is well.

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To be attached to the subdivision, to love the little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the series by which we proceed towards a love to our country.

Edmond Burke

1790 work, Reflections on the Revolution in France

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If you know someone who’s been through the hospice experience, acknowledge that. Just say you heard this guy Jason talk about how tough it must be to have those memories, and that you’re there if they ever want to talk about it. They may not want to talk, but it’s just nice to connect with someone living each day with those lasting images. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I’ve never been asked that question.

Jason Rosenthal , Ted Talk

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Nothing is more punitive than to give a disease a meaning.

Susan Sontag 

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Death and dying aren't the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived.

Ben Sasse

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And Lord, I can't make any changes

All I can do is write 'em in a song

All I Can Do Is Write About It, Lynyrd Skynyrd 

Songwriters: Ronnie Van Zant / Allen Collins

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Time really is a circle; I can see that now. We are trapped between a past we can’t return to and a future that is uncertain. And it takes guts to live here, in the hard space between anticipation and realization.

— Kate Bowler

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There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors.

-Adrienne Rich | Sources

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Patient and Daughter Appear Closely Bonded

By Amanda Quaid

My toddler takes a bite of tater tot and tells me

she wants me to die.

The social worker says I should respond and not

react to things like that

so I ask why she says she wants me to die

as though it’s just

a thought-provoking notion that has never

crossed my mind.

She thinks for a moment, chewing, her tiny lips

stained with blueberry juice.

“I want you to die so you can show me

how to die.”

I take that phrase and tuck it in my breast—she’s

given me a gift, I know,

a task or blessing or could it be—would you not

call it permission—

“And you could come back as a peacock!” she cries

with a grin

“And so could I, and then we could be friends!”

She cackles at me and I smile

back at her and see us in the next

go-round, two peacocks

preening our plumes in the Sri Lankan sun,

finally peers and bickering

over the last mangosteen

in the grove

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I don’t write out of what I know; I write out of what I wonder.

Lucille Clifton

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Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth

-Mike Tyson

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The half-life of grief is endless

Ken Burns

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Yes

It could happen any time, tornado, earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.

Or sunshine, love, salvation.

It could, you know. That's why we wake and look out—no guarantees in this life.

But some bonuses, like morning, like right now, like noon, like evening.

-William Stafford

[quotesengage]

Nothing Gold Can Stay

BY ROBERT FROST

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

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I’m not really afraid of these people. I’m afraid of hating myself.

- Harper Steele

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"[Your calling) is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet."

-Frederick Buechner

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Beautiful as a dandelion-blossom, golden in the green grass / This life can be 

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Conversation at Midnight