“We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do.”

“We wouldn't worry nearly as much about what others thought of us if we recognize how seldom they do.”

“..one true thing among all these paths is the need to tap a deep vein of connection between our own uncontrollable interior preoccupations and what we're most concerned about in the world around us. We write in response to that world; we write in response to what we read and learn; and in the end we write out of our deepest selves, the live, breathing, bleeding place where the picture form, and where it all begins.”

“God gave us our relatives: thank god we can choose our friends.”

“O Life,How oft we throw it off and think, — 'Enough,Enough of life in so much! — here's a causeFor rupture; — herein we must break with Life,Or be ourselves unworthy; here we are wronged,Maimed, spoiled for aspiration: farewell Life!'— And so, as froward babes, we hide our eyesAnd think all ended. — Then, Life calls to usIn some transformed, apocryphal, new voice,Above us, or below us, or around . .Perhaps we name it Nature's voice, or Love's,Tricking ourselves, because we are more ashamedTo own our compensations than our griefs:Still, Life's voice! — still, we make our peace with Life.”

“Most thoughts of wrongdoing are tempered by fear of retribution, which doesn't exonerate us or make us better. We are what we are. JT Barrett”

“The worst harm is what we inflict upon ourselves,Yet we point fingers and blame others.”