Quotes About Inspiration

In the face of death, life seemed more attractive, and as life seemed more attractive

She remembered being enthralled by an article about Svalbard, the Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. She'd never seen a place that looked so far away. She'd read about scientists doing research among glaciers and frozen fjords and puffins. Then, prompted by Mrs Elm, she'd decided she wanted to be a glaciologist.

He smiles a little. This is the point of being a teacher. A glimmer of hope where you thought it didn't exist.

I suppose I want my life to mean something. I want to do something good.

Professor Jonathan Rottenberg, an evolutionary psychologist and author of The Depths

I like this job. I can't right now think of a better purpose in life than to be a teacher. To teach feels like you are a guardian of time itself, protecting the future happiness of the world via the minds that are yet to shape it. It isn't playing the lute for Shakespeare, or the piano at Ciro's, but it's something as good. And goodness has its own kind of harmony.

People often use the word 'despite' in the context of mental illness. So-and-so did such-and-such despite having depression/anxiety/OCD/agoraphobia/whatever. But sometimes that 'despite' should be a 'because'. For instance, I write because of depression. I was not a writer before. The intensity needed - to explore things with relentless curiosity and energy - simply wasn't there.

When I opened my eyes I saw Tchaikovsky with his baton, seemingly pulling the music right out of the air, as if music was something already in the atmosphere.

Every book written is the product of a human mind in a particular state. Add all the books together and you get the end sum of humanity.

Adjusting her hands into position for E-flat major, she was momentarily distracted by a tattoo on her weirdly hairless forearm, written in beautifully angled calligraphic letters. It was a quote from Henry David Thoreau. All good things are wild and free.

Et surtout, les livres. Ils étaient, en eux même, une raison de rester en vie.

If one advances confidently,' Thoreau had written in Walden, 'in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.' He'd also observed that part of this success was the product of being alone. 'I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.' -The Midnight Library

Lincoln didn't do great work because he solved the problem of his melancholy; the problem of his melancholy was all the more fuel for the fire of his great work.

This. This right here is why I wanted to become a teacher. To know that it is possible to change the world for the better, in however small a way.

You are no longer insulated; but I suppose you must touch life in order to spring from it."' 'What's that? A quote?' I ask. 'Fitzgerald.

I was named after Bob Dylan. Did I ever tell you that?

No, the shock was that she felt like she was about to live. Or at least, that she could imagine wanting to be alive again. And she wanted to do something good with that life.

She wanted to have a purpose, something to give her a reason to exist.

Allez avec confiance dans la direction de vos rêves disait Thoreau. Vivez la vie que vous avez imaginée

Bertrand Russell wrote that 'To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three-parts dead'. Maybe that

Bücher sind Bäume, die träumen.

It's not the technique, it's the method. It's not the words, it's the melody.

Writing, then, is a kind of seeing. A way to see your insecurities more clearly. A way to shine a light on doubts and dreams and realise what they are actually about. It can dissolve a whole puddle of worries in the bright light of truth.

Reading isn't important because it helps to get you a job. It's important because it gives you room to exist beyond the reality you're given.