Dec. 6, 2024, 1:45 a.m.
In moments when creativity feels elusive and motivation dwindles, it's often a few well-chosen words that can reignite the spark within us. Quotes have the remarkable ability to distill wisdom, encapsulate emotions, and inspire action, all within a few lines. Drawing from a diverse tapestry of thinkers, creators, and leaders, we've curated a list of 37 exceptional quotes to help you find inspiration. Whether you're an artist seeking a fresh perspective, an entrepreneur in need of a motivational boost, or simply someone looking to refuel your passion, these quotes are sure to provide the encouragement you need. Dive into our collection and let these words guide you on your journey towards renewed creativity and relentless pursuit of your dreams.
1. “In the end, this volume should be read a s a collection of love stories, Above all, they are tales of love, not the love with which so many stories end – the love of fidelity, kindness and fertility – but the other side of love, its cruelty, sterility and duplicity. In a way, the decadents did accept Nordau's idea of the artist as monster. But in nature, the glory and panacea of romanticism, they found nothing. Theirs is an aesthetic that disavows the natural and with it the body. The truly beautiful body is dead, because it is empty. Decadent work is always morbid, but its attraction to death is through art. What they refused was the condemnation of that monster. And yet despite the decadent celebration of artifice, these stories record art's failure in the struggle against natural horror. Nature fights back and wins, and decadent writing remains a remarkable account of that failure.” - Asti Hustvedt
2. “On those occasions when he had killed in the dark, he later needed to see his victims' faces because, in some unlit corner of his heart, he half expected to find his own face looking up at him, ice-white and dead-eyed. "Deep down," the dream-victim had said, "You know that you're already dead yourself, burnt out inside. You realize that you have far more in common with your victims after you've killed them than before.” - Dean Koontz
3. “I was waiting for the longest time, she said. I thought you forgot.It is hard to forget, I said, when there is such an empty space when you are gone.” - Brian Andreas
4. “When I was little, I was out riding my brand-new blue bicycle when I decided to see how far I could keep going without looking back even once. I could feel with my back how my neighborhood was receding, further and further away... but I kept pedaling with all my might, my mind almost going blank. All I could hear was the sound of my own heart, thumping wildly in my ears. Even now, I remember it sometimes. What exactly was I trying to do that day? What was it that I wanted to prove?It's no good. My mind just keeps fogging over. I have this irritating sound stuck in my head. What is it? This sound... Ohh... I know what it is. This is... the sound of emptiness.” - Chica Umino
5. “There's just something obvious about emptiness, even when you try to convince yourself otherwise. ” - Sarah Dessen
6. “On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.” - Mark Haddon
7. “If she spoke, she would tell him the truth: she was not okay at all, but horribly empty, now that she knew what it was like to be filled.” - Jodi Picoult
8. “Nobody had forgotten anything here. In Berlin, you had to wrestle with the past, you had to build on the ruins, inside them. It wasn't like America where we scraped the earth clean, thinking we could start again every time. ” - Janet Fitch
9. “...I've been with you all day.I'm trying to stay calm.I'm impatient and it's really hard to breathe.I'm going to empty you and fill you in with me...” - Slipknot
10. “afflictions are classed as peripheral mental factors and are not themselves any of the six main minds [eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mental consciousnesses]. however, when any of the afflicting mental factors becomes manifest, a main mind [a mental consciousness] comes under its influence, goes wherever the affliction leads it, and 'accumulates' a bad action.there are a great many different kinds of afflictions, but the chief of them are desire, hatred, pride, wrong view and so forth. of these, desire and hatred are chief. because of an initial attachment to oneself, hatred arises when something undesirable occurs. further, through being attached to oneself the pride that holds one to be superior arises, and similarly when one has no knowledge of something, a wrong view that holds the object of this knowledge to be non-existent arises.how do self-attachment and so forth arise in such great force? because of beginningless conditioning, the mind tightly holds to 'i, i' even in dreams, and through the power of this conception, self-attachment and so forth occur. this false conception of 'i' arises because of one's lack of knowledge concerning the mode of existence of things. the fact that all objects are empty of inherent existence is obscured and one conceives things to exist inherently; the strong conception of 'i' derives from this. therefore, the conception that phenomena inherently exist is the afflicting ignorance that is the ultimate root of all afflictions.” - Dalai Lama XIV
11. “Life is an empty bottle filled with love.” - Santosh Kalwar
12. “Their screams would echo through the house and reverberate against my eardrums until my mind would fracture. Years went by and with each fracture; I lost a piece of my soul until I became lost and empty inside.” - J.D. Stroube
13. “Seeing the glass as half empty is more positive than seeing it as half full. Through such a lens the only choice is to pour more. That is righteous pessimism.” - Criss Jami
14. “For you the cup isn't half full or half empty, you're always topping it up.” - Rowena Cory Daniells
15. “She'd cried over a broken heart before. She knew what that felt like, and it didn't feel like this. Her heart felt not so much broken as just ... empty. It felt like she was an outline empty in the middle. The outline cried senselessly for the absent middle. The past cried for the present that was nothing.” - Ann Brashares
16. “I wont cry, it'll be fine. I'll take my last breath. Push it out my chest 'til there's nothing left.” - Hollywood Undead
17. “There is nothing for you in this bleak hospital room but a cold and empty nothingness that has no answers, can give no peace, will provide no comfort to the living.” - Rebecca James
18. “I think I’m going to cut down on my dating,’ Annie said. ‘I used to need a lot of attention. You know, to make up for that empty feeling inside. But boys aren’t always the answer.” - Francine Pascal
19. “Slowly, even though I thought it would never happen, New York lost its charm for me. I remember arriving in the city for the first time, passing with my parents through the First World's Club bouncers at Immigration, getting into a massive cab that didn't have a moment to waste, and falling in love as soon as we shot onto the bridge and I saw Manhattan rise up through the looks of parental terror reflected in the window. I lost my virginity in New York, twice (the second one wanted to believe he was the first so badly). I had my mind blown open by the combination of a liberal arts education and a drug-popping international crowd. I became tough. I had fun. I learned so much.But now New York was starting to feel empty, a great party that had gone on too long and was showing no sign of ending soon. I had a headache, and I was tired. I'd danced enough. I wanted a quiet conversation with someone who knew what load-shedding was.” - Mohsin Hamid
20. “Imagine a delicious glass of summer iced tea.Take a long cool sip. Listen to the ice crackle and clink.Is the glass part full or part empty?Take another sip.And now?” - Vera Nazarian
21. “There’s a big difference, I discovered, between wanting to die and not wanting to live. When you want to die, you at least have a goal. When you don’t want to live, you’re really just empty.” - Brian Hugh Warner
22. “Worrying is like a dominoes effect, that rolls from one day into the next, into a week, a month, a year;never accomplishing anything but stress, until it hits that last tile, which drops unfulfilled to an empty ground.” - Anthony Liccione
23. “Did Bach ever eatpancakes at midnight?” - Nathan Reese Maher
24. “I steal one glance over my shoulder as soon as we are far from the foreboding luminance of the neon glow, and it is there that my stomach leaps into my throat. Squatting just shy of the light and partially concealed by the shade of an alley is a sinister silhouette beneath a crimson cowl, beaming a demonic smile which spans from cheek to swollen cheek.” - Nathan Reese Maher
25. “Call me crazy, but there is something terribly wrong with this city.” - Nathan Reese Maher
26. “There is a stillness between us, a period of restlessness that ties my stomachin a hangman’s noose. It is this same lack in noise that lives, there! in thedarkness of the grave, how it frightens me beyond all things.” - Nathan Reese Maher
27. “I rouse Emily to our guests, as she finishes off our fifteenth snowman by setting the head atop its torso. She stands limp at my direction, pointing out the coming shadows and I cannot help but hear a muffled sigh as she decapitates her latest creation with a single push of her hand.” - Nathan Reese Maher
28. “She leaves my side and heads deeper intothe apartment singing, “—if the spirit tries to hide, its temple far away… acopper for those they ask, a diamond for those who stay.” - Nathan Reese Maher
29. “Do we not each dream of dreams? Do we not dance on the notes of lostmemories? Then are we not each dreamers of tomorrow and yesterday, since dreamsplay when time is askew? Are we not all adrift in the constant sea of trial and when all is done, do we not all yearn for ships to carry us home?” - Nathan Reese Maher
30. “History doesn’t start with a tall buildingand a card with your name written on it, but jokes do. I think someone is takingus for suckers and is playing a mean game.” - Nathan Reese Maher
31. “The world is a navy in an empty ocean.” - Dejan Stojanovic
32. “If emptiness is empty, how can something be borne or awaken from it?” - Dejan Stojanovic
33. “Survival is an ancient dream Life is nothing but an everlasting illusionNothing is RealDon’t believe in illusion,Remember me,I am here …” - Rixa White
34. “Sooner or later she'll figure out the truth: you're a shell of a man, all she has to do is knock against you to find out you're empty.” - Nicole Krauss
35. “There are so many empty people walking around on this little planet. Lonely people. Angry people. Bitter. Forgotten.” - Jeyn Roberts
36. “Everyone is alone. Everyone is empty. People no longer have need of others. You can always find a spare for any talent. Any relationship can be replaced. I had gotten bored of a world like that. But for some reason... The thought that someone other than you might kill me never occurred to me. (Makishima Shogo)” - Urobuchi Gen
37. “There's not one good thought in that place. There's nothing but waste and want. I can feel his selfish cravings and an abyss of secrets I hope to never know.” - Steve V. Cypert