T. Kingfisher,
What Feasts at Night

“Tomorrow, in my experience, is only worth worrying about when there’s something you can do about it.”

Byung-Chul Han,
The Disappearance of Rituals

“Contemporary society is characterized by constant and relentless moralizing. But at the same time society is becoming more and more brutal. Forms of politeness are disappearing, disregarded by the cult of authenticity. Beautiful forms of conduct are becoming ever rarer. In this respect, too, we are becoming hostile towards form. Apparently, the ascendency of morality is compatible with the barbarization of society. Morality is formless. Moral inwardness dispenses with form. One might even say: the more moralizing a society, the more impolite it is. Against this formless morality, we must defend an ethics of beautiful forms.”

Vincent van Gogh,
Van Gogh’s letter to Theo
(London, January 1874)

“Admire as much as you can, most people don’t admire enough.”

Carl Jung,
Unknown

“The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.”

Charles Bukowski,
Roll the Dice

“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”

David Ogilvy,
Émile, or On Education (1762)

“People don't think what they feel, don't say what they think and don't do what they say.”

Friedrich Nietzsche,
Unknown

“And those who were seen dancing, were thought to be crazy, by those who could not hear the music.”

Terry Pratchett,
Game of Thrones
The North Remembers

“Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show.”

Upton Sinclair,
I, Candidate for Governor:
And How I Got Licked

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Anthony Bourdain,
Kitchen Confidential:
Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“…the Empire of Mediocrity successfully spreading its tentacles everywhere. This, I have come to understand, is the way of the world. To resist is to stand against the hurricane. Bend (preferably at the hip, ass-cheeks proffered). Or break.”

Anthony Bourdain,
Kitchen Confidential:
Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“There is no lying in the kitchen. And no god there, either. He couldn’t help you anyway. You either can—or can’t—make an omelet. You either can—or can’t—chop an onion, shake a pan, keep up with the other cooks, replicate again and again, perfectly, the dishes that need to be done. No credential, no amount of bullshit, no well-formed sentences or pleas for mercy will change the basic facts.”

Massimo Banzi,
Unknown

“The man who says it can’t be done shouldn’t interrupt the man who is trying to do it.”

Carlos Castaneda,
Unknown

“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.”

Charles MacKay,
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
and the Madness of Crowds

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

Nietzsche,
Unknown

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”

Yohji Yamamoto,
The Most Important Thing

“I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion.”

Theodore Roosevelt,
"The Man in the Arena" speech
Sorbonne, Paris on 1910

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming.. who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly”

H. Jackson Brown Jr,
P.S. I Love You

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour.
Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream Discover.”