Inspirational Quotes

Andy Warhol:

Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.


Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister during and after the 1973 Yom Kippur War:

If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.


Circulating online re: Russia's invasion of Ukraine, 2022 :
 Russia lays down its weapons, there is no war. If Ukraine lays down its weapons, there is no Ukraine.


Karl Barth, theologian:

Being born and born by pain is particularly the lot of art because this is by nature an expression, a special action which introduces special works, an action whose alien character as play cannot be concealed or diminished in the midst of the seriousness of the present.  The artist's work is  homeless in the deepest sense even though it is also real work alongside scholarship and church and state.  Art does not come within the sphere of our work as creatures or our work as sinners saved by grace.  As pure play it relates to redemption.  Hence it is at root a non practical and lonely action.  It belongs to the empty sphere of the uncontrollable future in the present.


Saints are sinners who are still trying- fortune cookie

Patty Jenkins, Director, "Wonder Woman"
I grew up in a bit of a feminist fantasy with a single mom.  I was totally shielded, in a way, from an idea that I couldn't do something.

Marge Levy:
It's not how you fall down, it's how you get up.

Leonard Cohen:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

Shelley Keeling whose 100 yr old mother Ida Keeling holds the fastest time for American women age 95-99 in the 60 meter dash (29.86 secs):
I always understood from mother that you die on your feet rather than live on your knees.

Attributed to Mother Theresa:
-People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
-If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
-If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
-If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
-What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
-If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
-The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
-In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Pope Francis:
Things from the heart don't have an explanation.


Mary joins us, she fights at our side. She supports Christians in the fight against the forces of evil. Especially through prayer, through the rosary.


St Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions,  Book X, "Memory" (8, 13):
The huge repository of the memory, with its secrets and unimaginable caverns, welcomes and keeps all things, to be recalled and brought out for use when needed.

Will Rogers:
Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Ted Ligety, ski racer
When things aren't always going your way it's important to rise up.

Voltaire:
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.

Rev. Al Sharpton:
If we see the crises of today as a crucifixion and believe that behind every crucifixion there's a resurrection, our faith gives us the strength to survive.

Plato:
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.

Kevin Jorgenson, who with Tommy Cladwell free climbed the 3000 ft wall Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 19 days, summitting on 1/14/15:
I hope it inspires people to find their own Dawn Wall, if you will. We've been working on this thing a long time, slowly and surely. I think everyone has their own secret Dawn Wall to complete one day, and maybe they can put this project in their own context.

Paraphrase of Jean-Paul Sartre by Dan Brooks:
The sense of vertigo you feel when walking along a narrow mountain path... is not the fear that you will fall off but rather the fear that you will suddenly decide to jump.

Henry Ward Beecher:
It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more upon a man than he can bear. Worry is the rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, but the friction. Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices.

Todd Lokash, President Paragon Kilns:
A good leader recognizes that people have lives outside of work and understands the extreme importance of family. A good leader places family well above anything that has to do with work. Even though we may like to work, there are more important things in life than work. Putting that in perspective and treating employees with respect will create a very loyal, trusting, and dedicated workforce.

E.L. Doctorow on the writing process:
Here's how it goes: I'm up at the stroke of 10 or 10:30. I have breakfast and
read the papers, and then it's lunchtime. Then maybe a little nap after
lunch and out to the gym, and before I know it, it's time to have a drink.

Agnes Martin on being an artist:
There is the idea that art is not a ‘legitimate’ type of work; that it is a frivolity best saved for spare time, etc; or a luxury for the wealthy. But for artists who have a vision that they are compelled to share, art isn’t a frivolity or luxury- it’s a necessity. And for society, art is also a necessity, although this may not be realized by many. We are the spirit keepers, the mirrors, the candles. And we need to become our own best friends- to believe in ourselves and what we do. And stick together, rather than compete with one another.

Ken Price:
A craftsman knows what he's going to make and an artist doesn't know what he's going to make, or what the finished product is going to look like.

Thomas Edison:
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

There is no substitute for hard work.

Ray Bradbury:
I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before, but it’s true--hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.

Manny Vega on the art making process:
Everybody wants instant art. This is old school. A good design, some good materials, and shut up and do the work. There is no shortcut.

Beatrice Wood:
I think it’s a great privilege to live the way I do now…in beauty with many friends and the freedom to do what I wish, which happens to be pottery and chasing men… but they don’t know it.

Esther Dyson:
Always make new mistakes.

Richard Hodge, retired California Superior Court Judge:
Let some things go wrong.

Dean Martin:
There are two things every man should know about a woman, and nobody knows what they are.

Gustav Flaubert:
Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work. 

Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain:
I tried not to let my schooling interfere with my education.

Anita Steckel:
Good taste is the enemy of art. It's wonderful for curtains but in art it's suffocating.