Quotes About Reflection

Jeanne Birdsall

the cot was a window that looked back into the house.

quidquid agas prudenter agas et respice finem.

History is just the present in retrospect. Times change but people do not.

Death doesn't frighten me now I can think peacefully of ending a long life.

The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is.

It would be something that another person had written down without understanding its significance; just a sentence or two that would be like a flash of light.

Unintended consequences, he thought miserably. He was angry at his anger, the way it surged up and took over.

A thinking worker is bad business.

Some things can't be forgot. they can be put away though, thought back on a lesson, as somethin' we've overcome. That's what makes them go.

Miroir de l'Ame Pecheresse, Mirror of a Lost Soul.

Love isn't really about what we think of the other person, but how we feel about ourselves when we are with that person.

It's good to sometimes let things go. And people, too," she added.

If I'm going to be working out here in a place that at least feels like the middle of nowhere, I'm going to need access to the outside world. It's important to have access. Solitude is one thing, but you could turn into the Unabomber if you don't have some connection to people.

I was suppose to write a book about being a mom, to organize my thoughts into chapters and figure out a structure to hang them on, to make a lasting point, but somehow I decided to go ahead and become a mother instead.

Solitude helps you figure out where everybody else stops and you begin

Solitude is a luxury for the lucky. For people who don't have sick cats and lost ladybugs and very possibly dying loved ones to worry about. For people who don't have to worry about getting their hands dirty with the everyday goo of ordinary suffering.

I work more now because at this time of my life I am not disturbed from my aim by outside pressures such as family, passionate relationships, dealing with 'who am I?' - those complications when one is searching for one's self.

My face has changed with the years and has enough history in it to give audiences something to work with.

Knowing how to die is knowing how to live. What is death anyway? It's the outcome of life.

Every night I go over what I did in the day, in ethical or moral terms. Have I treated people properly? Did I tell the truth?

If you're extremely, painfully frightened of age, it shows.

I need, absolutely, to be alone.

Sober appreciation of what you have gained at so great a cost helps you feel consoled and proud. This recognition differs from the saccharine and self-obliterating exhortation to 'count your blessings' forced on many normal ones in childhood, because it is based on having enumerated your curses first.