“Do not be too timid & squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better. What if they are a little coarse, & you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, & get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice? Up again, you shall never more be so afraid of a tumble.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“Habits are powerful—people don’t realize how powerful habits are, and how much of their success or lack of success in life is attributable to sheer habit. Be aware of your habits, and what is turning in from an occasional to a regular thing, and what are the regular things that you don’t even think about any more, because they are so habitual that they have become invisible. Down to the very basics: how much and when do you sleep, what you eat, how you sit, whether you walk or bike or drive. When and where do you get your best ideas? What sorts of activities and conversations leave you feeling happier and smarter? What do you continually do that leaves you feeling demoralized. Be mindful of your habits. Make them intentional.”

J. C. Herz

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“For marriage find somebody that was born near the time when you were born.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“Keep your butt on the chair. You do it at the same time every day. You never wait for inspiration. It’s ridiculous. It will never come. It’s another way to keep you from writing…and you have to do it badly…Everything I’ve written that anyone might think is helpful was four pages longer and very purple and overwrought.”

Anne Lamott

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“In this age of information overload and abundance, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out, so they can concentrate on what’s important to them. Devoting yourself to something means shutting out other things. What makes you interesting isn’t just what you’ve experienced, but also what you haven’t experienced.”

Austin Kleon

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“Take things more easily. Don’t ask yourself so much whether this or that is good for you. Don’t question your conscience so much—it will get out of tune like a strummed piano. Keep it for great occasions. Don’t try so much to form your character—it’s like trying to pull open a tight, tender young rose. Live as you like best, and your character will take care of itself.”

Henry James

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“Be careful what you get good at doin’ ’cause you’ll be doin’ it for the rest of your life.”

Jo Carson

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“You can’t just write and write and put things in a drawer. They wither without the warm sun of someone else’s appreciation.”

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

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“It’s but little good you’ll do a-watering the last year’s crop.”

George Eliot

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“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Only press on: no feeling is final.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

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“Never say that something has moved you if you are still in the same place.”

Jeanette Winterson

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“Never demean yourself by talking back to a critic, never. Write those letters to the editor in your head, but don’t put them on paper.”

Truman Capote

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“All the books tell you that if the grizzly comes for you, on no account should you run. This is the sort of advice you get from someone who is sitting at a keyboard when he gives it. Take it from me, if you are in an open space with no weapons and a grizzly comes from you, run. You may as well. If nothing else, it will give you something to do with the last seven seconds of your life.”

Bill Bryson

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“My mother wasn’t a very patient woman. If I complained about being lonely or bored, she’d tell me to go help someone, anyone. To this day, when I start feeling sorry for myself, I look for a good deed to do.”

Donna Brazile

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“I’m proud to call Gloria Steinem a friend, and this advice came from her. While on a field trip in college with her geology class, she discovered a giant snapping turtle that had climbed out of the river, up a dirt path, right to the edge of a road. Worried it would soon be run over, she wrestled the enormous reptile off the embankment and back down to the water. At that moment, her professor walked up and asked what in the world she was doing. With some pride, she told him. He said that the turtle had probably spent a month crawling up that long dirt path to safely lay its eggs in the mud on the side of the road and that she had destroyed all that effort with her ‘rescue.’ Gloria tells this story to illustrate the most important political lesson she ever learned: Always ask the turtle.”

Donna Brazile

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