1101) "The truth that people are missing about certain things, you know when they get fearful and they get hateful, and they repress other peoples, is the greatest truth of all, you know, the truth of love and understanding and clarity about all those issues. And it's like, one day, one day, everybody's gonna know, myself included, over certain things. But, so it's like, it's alright, you know, you hate me now, but that's cool, because I see a better day and I know that there's a higher truth, and you're wrong about hating me because I'm gay."-Emily Saliers
1102) "What a lovely surprise to finally discover how unlonely being alone can be."-Ellen Burstyn
1103) "Winter-weary ground/ starts to give beneath my step/ earth too aches for spring"-Leslie Shiro
1104) "Trees tired of hiding/ gently push the night away/ to reveal the sun"-Leslie Shiro
1105) "Majoring in religion, listening to TV evangelists interpret the scriptures and dictate my offerings--I found my God inside myself--in every moment and piece of matter. Everything is animate."-Amy Ray
1106) "Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift; that's why they call it the present."-John A. Larson
1107) "I just hate that gay role models are supposed to be just like straight people, as if even straight people are like that."-Paul Rudnick, "Jeffrey"
1108) "I love [my parents], but what if I could really talk to them? I mean, what if they had some answers? Or would that just be too weird?"-Paul Rudnick, "Jeffrey"
1109) "Have you ever been to a picnic? And someone blows up a balloon, and everyone starts tossing it around, and it's always just about to touch the ground, but someone always gets there just in time to tap it back up? That balloon, that's God, the very best in all of us, the kindness, the heavy petting, Funny Girl! ...Evil bores me. It's just one note. It doesn't sing! Oh, of course life sucks! It always will. So why not make the most of it?"-Paul Rudnick, "Jeffrey"
1110) "I realized that if what we call human nature can be changed, then absolutely anything is possible. From that moment, my life changed."-Shirley MacLaine
1111) "The battle to keep up appearances unnecessarily, the mask--whatever name you give creeping perfectionism--robs us of our energies."-Robin Worthington
1112) "When people say: she's got everything, I've only one answer: I haven't had tomorrow."-Elizabeth Taylor
1113) "The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."-Dolly Parton
1114) "You can do one of two things; just shut up, which is something I don't find easy, or learn an awful lot very fast which is what I tried to do."-Jane Fonda
1115) "We don't see things as they are, we see the as we are."-Anais Nin
1116) "One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are, when you don't come home at night."-Margaret Mead
1117) "We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same."-Anne Frank
1118) "In the laughing times we know that we are lucky, and in the quiet times we know that we are blessed. And we will not be alone."-Dar Williams, "Arrival"
1119) "Nuestra lucha es por la tierra, hablando en su corazon indio, La patria sigue digna y con memoria, la patria que construimos es una donde quepan todos los pueblos y sus lenguas, que todos los pasos la caminen, que todos la rian que la amanezcan todos. Aqui estamos, no nos perdimos. Zapata vive, y al pesar de todo, la lucha sigue."-Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos ("Our fight is for the land, speaking in its Indian heart, the homeland that we've constructed is one where all towns and languages have a place, where everyone can walk their own path, where everyone laughs, and where all are awakened. We are here, we are not lost. Zapata lives and in spite of everything, the fight continues."-Subcommandant Insurgent Marcos)
1120) "One of the truly magical things about music and art in general, is the way it transcends language and cultural barriers and embodies universal truths."-Claire Johnson
1121) "You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is."-Ellen DeGeneres, My Point...and I Do Have One
1122) "Like children wanting candy/ you wait for me to say/ that it's alright, no one's watching/ you can eat your life away/ and sorry doesn't say that you made a mistake/ and sorry doesn't say that you didn't want the cake/ and many times you look to/ someone else to be complete/ when you're empty and you're searching/ and you don't know what you need/ and spirits just can't save/ a beggar who waits/ for a mouthful of the sweet/ for an easy oven recipe/ Sorry doesn't say that you made a mistake/ and sorry doesn't say that you didn't want the cake."-Molly Bancroft, "Sorry Doesn't Say"
1123) "She's a trip." "Yeah, she's Disneyworld." "And I want to go on ALL the rides."-two people who wish to remain anonymous, talking about a beautiful woman
1124) "By the time [Amy Ray] made out with the microphone on the bluesy cha-cha 'Don't Give That Girl a Gun' and cut harder, faster, and looser than this folk duo ever have for 'Shed Your Skin,' I, a happy breeder, was ready to strap my hands across her engine and get the hell out of town."-Joan Anderman
1125) "Music is such a good way to resist. It keeps you strong, it has dignity."-Amy Ray
1126) "It is the wounded heart that makes us human in the end."-Melanie Rae Thon
1127) "I was whining about a terrible day and my dad said: 'Any idiot can enjoy a good day. It's people who figure out how to enjoy a bad day who have something going for them.' I think of that often."-Monica Miller
1128) "I don't believe in/ Termonology. We should/ Be free to love all."-Becky Schwartz
1129) "Labels can bite me./ Love cannot be slapped into/ A category."-Becky Schwartz
1130) "We don't want to be labeled, because being gay or black or a rapper or redneck or alternative has only separated us, and those are labels previous generations have come up with, not us. We need to embrace our differences, not focus on them."-Zach, For Real: The Uncensored Truth About America's Teenagers
1131) "So when my critics say that Sassy is only for "alienated teenagers," I feel like responding, 'Well, isn't an unalienated teenager the biggest oxymoron?'"-Jane PrattFor Real: The Uncensored Truth About America's Teenagers
1132) "Well, you live and learn. At any rate, you live."-Douglas Adams
1133) "Do you ever go off with a long grocery list and come home from the store with a bunch of different stuff? And somebody in the family unsacks the groceries and wants to know why you got this and didn't get that and just where is the whatever? And you want to say, 'Well, just be glad I came back, okay?' And the unpacker says, 'Well, next time bring what's on the list.'"-Robert Fulghum, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten
1134) "No one can do everything, but everyone can do something."
1135)"Between my potential and the deep blue sea,/ There's a rock and a diamond either side of me./ Between our potential and the break of day,/ There is nothing at all in our way..."-John Gorka
1136) "[Amy Ray and I] both have this part of our brain that makes us think that everybody should and will be nice and friendly and forthcoming. And then we're completely disillusioned. We have all these grand plans. One of them is the Rolling Thunder Pussy Revue. There's all these women's festivals going on this summer, and we don't think they're as adventurous as they could be. Lilith Fair--right away, by the name, you know they aren't pushing the envelope hard enough."-Ani DiFranco
1137) "There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."-Douglas Adams
1138) "Together, [Amy Ray and Emily Saliers] mix like a tasty vinaigrette."-Jane Ganahl
1139) "Amy [Ray] introduced [Land of Canaan], commenting on how you sometimes go to sleep, scared to death wondering if the people you love will be all right and hoping you'll still feel the same about them. And that how when you wake up in the morning, what a great relief it is to still be in love."-AnnaLissa ("It feels kinda like we were, you know, asleep last night, and, and, we were wondering whether the person we were asleep with is gonna be okay in the morning. And you woke up, and it's like, good, hey, you're still in love."-Amy Ray)
1140) "Daemon is that innate creativity that is essentially our own, that which cannot be altered by the hands of any other human. It is an inbred force that is ours to do with what we want, how we want, and to what extent we want it."-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1141) "we need new words/ for what this is, this hunger entering our/ loneliness like birds, stunning our eyes into rays/ of hope. we need the flutter that can save/ us, something that will swirl across the face/ of what we have become and bring us grace."-Lucille Clifton
1142) "Last night we drank in parking lots,/ And why do we drink, I guess we do it cause./ And when I turned your station on,/ You sounded more familiar than that party was/ You were more familiar than that party...What's the future, who will choose it,/ Politics of love and music,/ Underdogs who turn the table,/ Indie versus major labels,/ There's so much to see through,/ Like our parents do more drugs than we do....They preach that I should save the world/ They pray that I won't do a better job of it,/ Pray that I won't do a better job."-Dar Williams, "Are You Out There"
1143) "I don't go to therapy to find out if I'm a freak,/ I go and find the one and only answer every week./ And it's just me and all the memories to follow/ Down any other course that fits within in a fifty minute hour,/ And we fathom all the mysteries, explicit and inherent,/ When I hit a rut she says to try the other parent./ And she's so kind, I think she wants to tell me something./ But she knows that it's so much better if I get it for myself...And when I talk about therapy, I know what people think,/ That it only makes you selfish and in love with your shrink,/ But oh how I loved everybody else,/ When I finally got to talk so much about myself,/ And I wake up, and I ask myself what state I'm in,/ And I say I'm lucky cause I am like East Berlin,/ I had this wall, and what I knew of the free world/ Was that I could see their fireworks,/ and I could hear their radio,/ And I thought that if we met, I would only start confessing,/ And they'd know that I was scared,/ they would know that I was guessing,/ But the wall came down, and there they stood before me,/ With their stumbling and their mumbling/ and their calling out, just like me."-Dar Williams, "What Do You Hear in These Sounds"
1143) "You angels shine your halos/ You preachers grip your books/ Mount your golden soapboxes/ To get a better look/ But don't let your high horse/ Carry you so far away/ You can't see the heavens for the light of day."-Michelle Malone
1144) "Art is so subjective--it means something different to every person. The important thing for it to do is to touch on the senses and emotions."-Michelle Malone
1145) "The summer ends, and we wonder where we are,/ And there you go my friends with your boxes in your car./...There are just some moments when your family makes sense,/ They just make sense./ The summer ends and we wonder who we are,/...And the colors are much brighter now,/ It's like they really want to tell you the truth."-Dar Williams, "The End of the Summer"
1146) "And when the barn roof sagged after an icy bout,/ It's like how you shrugged when you knew/ the truth was the only way out,/ But now the only way,/ And if I wrote you,/ If I wrote you,/ You would know me,/ And you would not write me again."-Dar Williams, "If I Wrote You"
1147) "When I grew up, well it felt great,/ I watched how others took their fate,/ Some felt afraid and undefended, so they got mean/ And they pretended what they knew made them belong more than you,/ I'm sure you know there's lots to learn,/ But that's not your fault, that's just your turn, yeah yeah/ Teenagers kick our butts, tell us what the future will bring,/ Teenagers look at us, we have not solved everything./ We drink and smoke to numb our pain,/ We read junk novels on the plane./ We use authority for show so we can be a little smarter./ We still can grow, and many do,/ It's when we stop, we can't reach you,/ We feel the loss, we feel the blame,/ We're scared to lose, don't be the same, hey hey,/...And when the media try to act your age,/ Don't be seduced, they're full of rage,/ Find your voice, do what it takes,/ Make sure you make lots of mistakes,/ To find the future that redeems,/ Give us hell, give us dreams./ And grow and grow and grow,/ And someday when some teenagers come to kick your butts,/ Well then like I do, try to/ Love (kick our butts)."-Dar Williams, "Teenagers Kick Our Butts"
1148) "Sometimes I see myself fine, sometimes I need a witness./ And I like the whole truth,/ but there are nights I only need forgiveness./ Sometimes they say, 'I don't know who you are,/ but let me walk with you some.'/ And I say, 'I am alone, that's all,/ you can't save me from all the wrong I've done,'/ But they're waiting just the same,/ With their flashlights and their semaphores,/ And I'll act like I have faith and like that faith never ends,/ But I really just have friends."-Dar Williams, "My Friends"
1149) "Here's wishing you the bluest sky/ And hoping something better comes tomorrow/ Hoping all the verses rhyme,/ And the very best of choruses to/ Follow all the doubt and sadness/ I know that better things are on the way./ Here's hoping all the days ahead/ Won't be as bitter as the ones behind you/ Be an optimist instead,/ And somehow happiness will find you./ Forget what happened yesterday,/ I know that better things are on their way./ It's really good to see you rocking out/ And having fun,/ Living like you just begun./ Accept your life and what it brings./ I hope tomorrow you find better things./ I know tomorrow you'll find better things./...I know you've got a lot of good things happening up ahead./ The past is gone, it's all been said./ So here's to what the future brings,/ I know tomorrow you'll find better things."-Ray Davies, "Better Things"
1150) "The reward of a thing well done is to have done it."-Ralph Waldo Emerson
1151) "What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say?...For it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken."-Audre Lorde
1152) "We're born to shimmer, we're born to shine,/ We're born to radiate./ We're born to live, we're born to love,/ We're born to never hate..."-Shawn Mullins
1153) "Losing myself in a relationship is one thing, but losing myself in a computer...that's justified!"-Joyce
1154) "The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work."-Richard Bach
1155) "Spend all your time waiting/ for that second chance/ for a break that would make it okay/ there's always one reason/ to feel not good enough/ and it's hard at the end of the day/ I need some distraction/ oh beautiful release/ memory seeps from my veins/ let me be empty/ and weightless and maybe/ I'll find some peace tonight/ in the arms of an angel/ fly away from here/ from this dark cold hotel room/ and the endlessness that you fear/ you are pulled from the wreckage/ of your silent reverie/ you're in the arms of the angel/ may you find some comfort there/ so tired of the straight line/ and everywhere you turn/ there's vultures and thieves at your back/ and the storm keeps on twisting/ you keep on building the lie/ that you make up for all that you lack/ it don't make no difference/ escaping one last time/ it's easier to believe in this sweet madness oh/ this glorious sadness that brings me to my knees."-Sarah McLachlan, "Angel"
1156) "What do you think about all this spirituality stuff that makes you feel all calm inside? I mean do you ever meditate and look up in the sky and see the stars and the moon and think about all the things you can believe in? But then you look out on your road and you see this dog got hit by a car and it's itchin' and scratchin' and growlin' and barkin' and you feel sooooooooo baaaadd....you just want to take a knife and cut your throat because you can't believe the world could be so evil...but you don't do that do you? You think about yourself instead. You think about yourself and you go, 'God, I'm glad I'm alive! I'm glad I'm alive! I'm glad I'm alive...'"-Amy Ray
1157) "so this is what it comes down to/ in our falling in/ and out/ we've come to miscomunication/ if any at all/ well, i guess i'll start/ with something easy/ i won't jump right into/ i love you/ i won't bring up the hard stuff/ like how you hurt me/ i promise not to touch you/ in a way that will/ touch you/ i think i'll just start with/ how are you?/ we haven't talked in so long/ and the last time we did/ it was always/ how am i? oh, fine,/ except that my heart is bleeding/ with unrequited love...but/ remember, we're not talking about that/ so i'm/ trying to come up with something i'm/ allowed to say/ and i can't/ so this is what it comes down to/ miscommunication/ if any at all"-Heidi Anne Harris
1158) "Cold fingers/ grip her soul/ and she shudders,/ hiding in the/ corner,/ grasping, reaching,/ clutching any warmth/ that comes within reach./ Holding tight,/ not wanting/ to lose it./ She wouldn't need/ the stale/ Fake/ heat of others/ if only she/ could find/ her own."-Icarus
1159) "it's like a game i play with myself/ i scan all my cds for sad songs/ and pick them apart/ twisting each line i can around to you/ before it was you reminding me of him/ but you've reversed that/ i remember every little thing about it/ that incident neither of us like to discuss/ the look on your face when you told me when you read the letter/ how you sat in your car and cried/ but when you told me,/ i could detect the wavering of your voice,/ later i felt your altered breathing,/ but you were too strong to cry/ i tried to comfort you/ by running my fingers up and down your back/ like my mother used to/ this is the second time i've ever actually hurt someone/ both times, afterword, i couldn't even tell you why/ now that it's been exactly twenty-eight days/ and about six hours/ not much has changed/ besides how i feel/ but how i feel is irrational/ and it doesn't matter/ at least not to you/ i had to practically beat it out of you/ but when you told me, i remember everything/ my half eaten banana nut bagel/ empty cup of orange juice/ with the molding bowl of ice cream stacked on top/ my lip becoming stiff/ too strong to cry"-Lauren Wilshusen
1160) "that night/ you had young eyes/ and the words slipped from your lips/ like you meant them/ but you wore your lies/ like a disguise/ and now I wish I'd seen through to you/ let me clue you in/ I wasn't one hundred percent in the dark/ Yeah we both played our part/ and baby you'll find that I'm not so blind,/ I just chose not to see/ and I don't think you intended to misuse me/ I just think you were confused/ 'cause I would bend over backwards/for you/ yeah I would mend this if I could/ this tear in the fabric that hold us together/ and no one could make me reveal the secrets that I concealed/ we could hide forever behind/ the pretty words that take up space/ oh- I could never speak my mind/ yeah I could be weak and docile,/ but who would I be then/ could you respect me/ if I didn't defend/ myself to you"-Kendra
1161) "alone/ in the/ dark/ i cry/ a woman/ no,/ an individual/ living in/ this/ plastic world/ shunned by/ the light/ plasmatic love/ in the/ garden/ sitting on/ a flower/ talking to/ myself/ the ocean/ laps against/ my feet/ i drown/ slowly in/ the pollen."-Dana Casterlin
1162) "their words spread through me/ as if i was an eagle/ spreading my wings/ through the morning sun/ watching the earth and its people/ passing by without a thought/ to the threatening evaluation of love/ and the uncomplicated resolution of freedom/ the mind soars with visions of flowing/ through life as if it meant/ living in peace and happiness/ surrounded by indigo./ bringing out a change in me/ one that was always there/ wrestling with thoughts of escape/ only in the world of closed doors/ to open them with the words/ creating a time bomb in the heart/ knocked down, but taller still/ as my soul is tossed around./ feelings written down and given to all/ who choose to listen to the story/ of survival and courage/ that is uttered with a common call."-Tucker Branham, "Thoughts of indigo"
1163) "and now i'm back. changed, as i think we always are after a good experience. learned something, bonded with myself, remembered feelings i'd forgotten, spoke to strangers---one of the neat things about talking to strangers while travelling is being able to leave, nothing in the future depends on what you said today. and of course friends are good for the opposite reasons, for a permanence of sorts we provide each other in the changing..."-Audrey Beth Stein
1164) "[Penn Jillette] said, 'If a truck is barreling toward you, no amount of positiveness will stop it from hitting you.' I needed to hear that I didn't have to be enthusiastic all the time. Some days you just need to be in a bad mood."-Julia Sweeney
1165) "Telling a lie is called wrong./ Telling the truth is called right./ Except when telling the truth is called bad manners and telling a lie is called polite."-Judith Viorst, "Manners"
1166) "fiction is wonderful because you can explore the consequences of wishes--good and bad ones--without quite letting on. aaah the freedom of disguise! but dare i let you all see? dare i let myself see? in a way it's almost more frightening to turn to fiction, you delve deeper, sometimes it feels too deep and i think often i don't go in because i'm afraid to come out. who will i be? and when i take the trek alone will you be there on the other side? will i want to stay inside the fiction?"-Audrey Beth Stein
1167) "He told me he likes men as well as he likes women, which seems only natural, he says, since he is the offspring of two sexes as well as two races. No one is surprised he is biracial; why should they be surprised he is bisexual? This is an explanation I have never heard and cannot entirely grasp; it seems too logical for my brain."-Alice Walker
1168) "My feeling is that labels are for canned food....I am what I am--and I know what I am."-Michael Stipe
1169) "Say goodbye to a world where you cannot breathe/ To hiding behind unfamiliar skin/ To singing songs never knowing what they mean/ Now this is the way it was meant to be/ Be still and listen to the rising and falling/ Knowledge is power and I never knew me till now."-Michelle Malone
1170) "I would never feel confident enough to express my views and opinions as the right ones because I just don't think that's possible. There are so many sides to everything that nobody is right or wrong."-P.J. Harvey
1171) "Amy and Emily = macaroni & cheese ... comfort food comfort music ... what else... oh yeah, chianti and fava beans...umm...and also... wool socks and teva sandals on a mild day hiking in the woods with your svede (pet name for spousal equivalent) and seeing a deer walk by and having her stop and stare at you for a really long time then nod her head and stroll into a thicket - that's the amy and emily metaphor I most like to use..."-Kimberly Hobbs
1172) "Not all who wander are lost."-J.R.R. Tolkien
1173) "too much freedom, i'm learning, can be just as frustrating as not enough. and as with everything in life, i'm still trying to find the balance."-Audrey Beth Stein
1174) "I mean, I think it's hard enough to find somebody you can stand for more than ten minutes, so, like, you shouldn't narrow your options."-Ani DiFranco
1175) "i sit alone a lot, but/ i do not mind it/ i'm just waiting for something/ clean to fill/ this emptiness/ but it's been so long/ i think i may never find it/ you worked for a bit/ i could look in the mirror and smile/ i felt complete with you near me/ but that lasted a short while/ i realize only half the shit/ you say/ turns out to be true/ so i just look you square in the/ eyes..../ call me when it's convenient for you....things move so slowly now/ each minute seemingly/ a year/ i wait around for nothing/ but nothing's what i fear/ i've taken comfort in/ the monontony/ of the pain that embrace/ and what i wouldn't give/ to smash my nothing in/ your face/ and i fell so fast,/ so hard/ and i'm struggling to get up/ but never will i let you win/ i'll never admit i'm stuck/...i used to live to dream/ now i dream to live/ i've realized i'll never accept/ the things which no one can give./ and each morning as i dress/ i pretend i'm not really me/ because really, i'm just/ pretending/ to be the girl you see/ and it seems pointless to dream/ and live a lie/ but there's something in me/ that's too strong to die/ and it will hold me tight/ and burden me with guilt/ because i do need something/ there/ to keep me in this hell i've/ already built./ and now i'm more alone/ than i ever was before/ because when i let you go/ you took a piece of me out that door/ and i miss that piece/ because it kept me sane/ and now i'm alone,/ with my naive heart to blame."-Jess
1176) "Everytihng happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough."-George Bernard Shaw
1177) "Are you awake? Yes, I am awake. Can you get up? I can't get up. Why can't you? Because I don't want to. Why don't you want to? 'Cause everything comes down real hard. Why does everything come down? Because I let it. You let it? I let it. You let it? I let it. Can you learn this? I can learn this. Let me teach you something. I will be taught. When you get up in the morning, we all want to say this. You will say: I will walk down the street. I will hold my head high. I will say hello to everyone I meet. I will have love in my heart. When I have hate, I will turn my hate into energy. When I have anger, I will turn my anger into energy. When I am negative, I will be negative only for as long as I need to be, until I understand it and then I will be positive. And I will not be complacent. AND I WILL NOT BE COMPLACENT. AND I WILL NOT BE A RACIST. AND I WILL NOT BE A SEXIST. AND I WILL NOT BE A HOMOPHOBIC ASSHOLE. AND I WILL LOVE. AND I WILL LOVE. AND I WILL BE HAPPY THAT I AM ALIVE."-Amy Ray
1178) "Therapy was the biggest romance of my life."-Dar Williams
1179) "I'd dare to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax, I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones. You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have. If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies."-adapted from an essay by Don Herold
1180) "Never frown...even when you're sad 'cause you never know when someone's falling in love with your smile."
1181) "Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine. Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday. Do one thing every day that scares you. Sing. Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours. Floss. Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself. Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how. Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements. Stretch. Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't. Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone. Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's. Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own. Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. Read the directions, even if you don't follow them. Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly. Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future. Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young. Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel. Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders. Respect your elders. Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out. Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85. Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth. But trust me on the sunscreen."-Mary Schmich
1182) "For one human being to love another...that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the final and ultimate proof, the task for which all others are but preparation."-Rainer Maria Rilke
1183) "And most importantly have no expectations. I keep reading all these posts about concert suckage or bad things that have happened at concerts. I honestly believe that we have too many expectations at these shows. The girls are not going to play every song you want. The audience is not going to sing at all the right places. The security guards are not going to let you personally greet amy and emily. There are going to be lesbians there. There are going to gay men there. There are going to be straight people there too. There are going to be screaming teenagers. People are going to chat during slow songs. People are going to yell at the wrong times. There may even be big yucky women smoking cigars right next to you while drunkenly going yah yah during Ghost. So have no expectations and maybe if you have a good time and an amazing experience it will be a pleasant surprise. yes an IG concert can be an amazing time. But don't expect it to be the greatest day of your life. Don't even expect it to be one of the best days of your life. Unless they are playing in your backyard it's just a concert so deal. :)"-Greg Flamer
1185) "...my personal experiences at camp have been both very wonderful and intense. and that intensity is almost frightening, looked at from a more distant perspective. we have given our hearts to each other, and we may not even know the other's address. we have told each other so much about ourselves - some of our most intimate feelings and dreams - and we may not know the most simple things about each other. and that intensity is just impossible to maintain once we leave camp. we have made this instant and deep connection, and letters cannot express that in the same way. even phone calls are often disappointingly awkward, since there is no longer the context of the common ground of camp."-Kate
1186) "For me, photographs take their power from memory and emotion. A picture tells its own story, shaped by the mood or insights of the person you are at the time you see it. It becomes layered with the past and the present. It need not be of people you know: if a photograph is powerful, you enter it the moment it was taken. All that emerges from your observation becomes your own."-Sharon J. Wohlmuth
1187) "It's all right if things don't change today. We're gonna keep doing what we do. The world can either catch up or not."-Amy Ray
1188) "I would like/ a simple life, yet all night i am laying poems away in a long box/ it is my immortality box, my lay-away plan, my coffin..."-Anne Sexton
1189) "Brilliance is one part talent, two parts wisdom and three parts passion. Whenever you encounter it in your midst, celebrate it, encourage it, be happy for it."-Margaret Mitchell
1190) "Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you."-Susan Carlson
1191) "Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."-Ella Fitzgerald
1192) "You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something wonderful has been lost."-Martha Graham
1193) "I was invited to the state Young Writer's Conference....There were 2700 young faces out there, and off to the side of the stage was the suit and tie crowd and the speaker after me was from the Chamber of Commerce. And something inside me snapped. I got up on the stage and said something to the effect of: 'You are about to be told one more time that you are America's most valuable natural resource. Do you know what they do to valuable natural resources? Have you seen a strip mine? Have you seen a clear-cut forest? Have you seen a polluted river? Don't ever let them call you a valuable natural resource. They're gonna strip mine your soul, they're gonna clear cut your best ideas for the sake of profit unless you learn to resist 'cuz the profit system follows the path of least resistance and the path of least resistance is what makes a river crooked.' Well there was a great gnashing of teeth and rending of garments. Mine. I was borne to the door screaming epithets over my shoulder, something to the effect of: 'Make a break for it kids!'"-Utah Phillips
1194) "Yeah, we appreciate our women followng...and I love women. I mean, I just really love women. I love men, too, but you know it's like sometimes you look up from what you're doing and you go, 'I love women.' There's just something about them and so, just celebrate it."-Amy Ray
1195) "home is above all a state of mind....it's just one often associated with a certain place or certain people or traditions or objects or weather patterns..."-Audrey Beth Stein
1196) "The world is round, and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning."-Ivy Baker Priest
1197) "I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much."-Mother Teresa
1198) "Reality is something you rise above."-Liza Minnelli
1199) "It is never too late to be what you might have been."-George Eliot (Marian Evans)
1200) "True feeling justifies whatever it may cost."-May Sarton