“Sometimes, little lions sleep inside the man’s guts that can’t get full only by eating raw meat; they want to eat souls, to blend fates, to break dreams.”
Motivational Monday
Monday again, the most difficult day of the week so…the perfect day for some motivation!
- Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
Dalai Lama
- If you’re going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill
- Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.
Alfred A. Montapert
- If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
Jim Rohn
- Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now.
Denis Waitley
- Poverty was the greatest motivating factor in my life.
Jimmy Dean
- The more we do, the more we can do.
William Hazlitt
- Who seeks shall find.
Sophocles
- Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.
Robert H. Schuller
- Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting.
Christopher Morley
- You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
Jack London
*HAVE A NICE WEEK*
Tom Robbins, “Still Life with Woodpecker”
“Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.”
“The blues” with friends have a different color
I put some more red lipstick on, tightened my hair tail a little bit more and gave one last glance at the mirror just to see that everything was ok. I had some extra 5 minutes before the guys would show up. It was Thursday night and like every other Thursday we would meet to go to the pub which was just a few meters away of my apartment. Actually, it was so close that you could hear the deep notes of the bass straggling against the city noise. The most essential component of blues. The bass. I took the cigarette which was still burning in the ashtray and took a few puffs. I wore my coat and went out to the balcony to “catch” the song that was playing from the local pub. I started moving my head slowly in the rhythm of the music when the laughter from down the street interrupted my “journey”.
– “Come down already!”
I got in, I squeezed my cat’s head hurriedly and run down the stairs to meet the guys.
We took straight ahead the road towards the pub. I was walking, as usually, in front while the guys were chatting and giggling behind. “I’ll ask them later” I thought. I was too lost in the music which was becoming louder as we were approaching. As we got in, the jukebox was playing the song “Cry me a river” by Ella Fitzgerald. We sat at the table near to the window and ordered our drinks. I ordered a Tom Collins.
… We were having a good time, we were laughing a lot. Jim went to the barman to order another round. I got up and said “I’m going out for a cigarette”. The guys didn’t even hear me. They were already lost in a conversation about the most exotic landscapes in the world. It had just started drizzling but I didn’t mind. I lighted my cigarette and I watched the smoke coming out smoothly. The song “Body and Soul” was on. I closed my eyes and imagined that the people who were walking by in a hurry, stopped for a while and danced in the smooth sound of Billie Holiday’s voice. I folded my hands tight and danced too, hoping that this cigarette will never end.
Multiple reality
– You are late again!
– Ohhh don’t start again grandpa… Sleep is warm.
– The sun is warm not sleep.
– In winter sleep is warmer.
– Kid I’ve told you many times before that it’s really important to come here to enjoy the sun. At least once a week.The sun’s warmth gets inside you and ties your soul to this world. Sleep’s warmth is different.
– What do you mean different?
– Sleep’s warmth takes your soul from this world and ties it to different ones.
– And where are those worlds?
– Wherever your dreams take you.
– So are there many worlds?
– Countless.
– But this world is the real one, right?
– Things are different for humans. We are much more complicated. Our eyes are not the best judge of what is real and what is not. Our eyes see many things, but the way you look at things is what defines them. It’s your choice if something is real or not. You define reality. Look at the view and tell me what do you think is real?
– The sea, the trees, the sun, the sky…
– How are you feeling by looking this view?
– Happiness.
– Do you know what people with depression see? 
– ….
Michael Ende – Momo (No 1)
“If people knew the nature of death, …they’d cease to be afraid of it. And if they ceased to be afraid of it, no one could rob them of their time anymore”
My top 11 quotes of Cunfucius
I’m fond of Asian Culture and especially Asian philosophy, so today I decided to share my favorite quotes of Confucius from “The Confucian Analects”.
- Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.
- Study the past if you would define the future.
- What the superior man seeks is in himself, what the small man seeks is in others.
- Have no friends not equal to yourself.
- If a man takes no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.
- Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.
- Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.
- Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance.
- The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
- They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
- Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.
Which one did you like the most? I would love for you to share with me your favorite Confucian quote or list! 🙂
Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
“Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion.”
The ticket
He still remembers the long fairy tails, he and his friends used to make at the back yard of his house. They used to build forts and castles with mud and their stories would always contain a game of domination. Oh, how much he loved these games! They separated in two teams and his team would always win. That’s why everybody wanted to be in his team, in his side.
Year by year though, more and more kids got bored of his strategy games, less and less kids would concentrate to play with him, till the games stopped. All had heard about this “ticket” which would give one the possibility to acquire everything one ever wanted. Gossips flew all around. Even he heard about it. The real game was in action.The ticket, according to the rumors, had felt somewhere over there, so everybody started looking for it, day and night. They all got obsessed with it but not as much as he was. This ticket had to be his! His perseverance was so big that this searching journey lasted 80 whole years. He dedicated all his life trying to find it. He searched every inch of the streets, in the trash cans, everywhere.
As a consequence of this endless searching, his body started bending. Now, his upper body is almost parallel with the ground, he is just an old humped back man. Because of his body formed that way, he was not able to look anymore at something else than the ground. He still has this obsession with finding the “ticket”.
One day a voice came from above…
– Old man, is too late for you to be searching for “the ticket”, don’t you think so? Even, if you’ll find it you don’t have much time to enjoy it.
– Why do you care? This ticket will give me everything I ever wanted. I’ll enjoy it in the time I got left.
– You are too stubborn old man.
– Yes, maybe all this is just a bet for me now. Yes, maybe it would be better if I had found it when I was still young and had my whole life in front of me. I dedicate my whole life on this and I’m not going to die before I find it. I owe it to myself.
– All this time you were living in a dream old man. You are not going to find it.
– Why are you saying this?
– Because…I invented the idea of “the ticket”. And I’m telling you, “the ticket” doesn’t exist. Never did. It was never real.
Suddenly the old humped back man wasn’t feeling so well. He tried to hang on something.
The voice continued…
– I hate humans and as I was born really tall, I tried not to look down. I didn’t want to look at people and their greediness. “The ticket” kept their eyes down so they wouldn’t be able to look at anything else that might exist, so they wouldn’t know… In contrast with you, my body “learned” to always look up.
The old man sat on the ground and said:
– You talk about greediness like you aren’t greedy at all?
– Of course I am but I was able to recognize it and use it as I liked. Now it’s too late for me too. Because what I’ve learned at last is that the real ticket is in front of us and neither you nor I can see it.
“The alchemist” by Paolo Coehlo
” I’m afraid that if my dream is realized, I’ll have no reason to go on living…and I’m afraid that it would all be a disappointment, so I prefer just to dream about it.”
A lost stargazer 