Asklemmy

Work smarter, not harder.

Scrooge Mc Duck

"Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source" - Iroh

And

"Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was Oh no, not again. Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now." - Hitchhikers Guide

Dont think about things too much. Just accept it, and change accordingly with a response

You are under no obligation to be the same person you were five minutes ago. - Alan Watts

I would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned.

Richard Feynman

"Don't let perfect be the enemy of good."

I would be so far ahead of where I am right now if I had just decided on a course and committed instead of analyzing all the choices to death.

Something my grandpa said, sometime around 2006-2007 I think.

"The next world war, will be between the rich and and the poor, and the rich will win before the poor knows there's a war."

Never tie your identity to something that can be taken away. Re: job title, salary, perceived status. Your self perceived identity should have a much more stable foundation.

"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." -A clump of talking stars in Futurama I look at it like being a good custodian or someone who takes pride in the smallest details of their work, regardless of whether or not you receive recognition for them. Most people don't notice the effort being put in when things are running smoothly. The work of the people behind the scenes is directly responsible for successes in the spotlight.

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country." ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Dad told me when I was young to "learn to drink your coffee black and cold and you'll never be disappointed."

I don't think he was just talking about coffee.

"Feelings are like children, you can't let them drive, but you can't put them in the trunk."

But I feel that one has a ¨spiritual parent¨:

"Educate a child so you don't have to reprimand an adult."

and a ¨spiritual sibling¨:

"If your only tool is a Hammer then every problem looks like a Nail."

"Who I am is where I stand.

Where I stand is where I fall."

-Steven Moffat, Doctor Who

I have a lot of darkness in my head due to my upbringing. I'll never get it out. That doesn't stop me from being a good man, because who you are and what you'll be remembered as isn't your internal struggle, its what you chose to stand for in practice.

Men are scared that women will laugh at them , women are scared that men will kill them.

"Hurt people hurt people"

Ever since I heard this, I became relatively more compassionate towards people, even if they piss me off.

You don't need to do everything every day. Some days, surviving is enough.

"Don't follow people - follow ideas" which seems more relevant today than ever before it seems.

It's not a party if it happens every night

Not so much a quote as a poem, but it's brief so here's the whole thing:

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another's throats.

Man hands on misery to man, It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don't have any kids yourself.

• "This Be the Verse" by Philip Larkin

As for what it means to me, I think it speaks for itself. It's bleak and devastating, yet beautiful. I love the elegance and simplicity of the writing. It's the only poem I have memorized because it's so aesthetically pleasing and emotionally resonant. It has stuck with me since I first heard it over 10 years ago.

The opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.

Truly hating something takes passion, energy and time out of your day. It also taught me that for masters of personal interest, if you truly need to end a relationship with someone, you simply stop responding. It’s far more effective than loudly proclaiming what you feel they do wrong. That will take far more away from you than if you cut ties.

"Trust no one - not even yourself"

My dad told me this while going through a divorce. He was also going through a criminal trial due to his deviance.

Its one thing that stuck with me and I wish it didn't.

Another one is from Lenin: " 'There Are Decades Where Nothing Happens' and 'Weeks Where Decades Happen' "

Should I kill myself, or have a cup of coffee? But in the end one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.

~ Camus

"You know, sweetheart, if there's one thing I've learned, it's this: nobody knows what's gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might as well enjoy the trip." Manny Calavera

The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those who sang best

The less you know about your history, the easier it is to imagine you'd always be on the right side of it.

"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." - Winnie-the-Pooh

I didn't read Winnie-the-Pooh till I was an adult and when I read this it felt like reading a universal truth everyone should know. It nearly brought me to tears.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

George Orwell, 1984

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt" - Often wrongly attributed to Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln but the earliest record is Maurice Switzer

Comparison is the thief of joy. I think a lot of people could do with that one.

"It'll never be the same"
In context, meaning that things can never go back to the way they were... Ever.

For me it's like a grounding statement. Whenever I start thinking about some past time and just want things to go back to how they were, I remember this. My mind shifts to the future and I forget that nostalgic feeling because I remember that it can never be.

“No matter where you go, there you are.”

Made absolutely no sense to me when I was younger. Now, I get that it means changing one’s location or situation in an effort to avoid something doesn’t work. You’re still you, you’re there, and the problem still exists. Obviously some situations can be improved by leaving them, so the statement isn’t completely correct, but there’s plenty of truth to it.

“You can never go home again” also used to bug me, because of course you can physically return to the places you grew up. But if you’ve been away a good while the place you grew up in might have changed, the people will have changed, and you will also have changed. Home will be where you have made a new life. Your old home will be like trying to put on a shoe you haven’t worn in a few years. Yeah, it fits, but it doesn’t feel right. It’s not comfortable like it used to feel. Home isn’t there anymore. I kinda envy some people that I know who never left my hometown. They have the same friends, been hanging out for years, still get together for family stuff…but at the same time I’ve experienced a shitload more than they have. My original home doesn’t exist for me anymore.

The pleasure of being understood is underrated

• Simon Baker portraying Patrick Jane in The Mentalist

"Nobody will take care of you if you don't take care of yourself"

Apply this to pushing back on contracts, double checking what you're asked to do, and putting yourself first, and you'll get a lot more respect in my experience. If you primarily put others first, your self will feel neglected. It doesn't mean you should not care for others, but that your highest priority should be yourself, and then others.

That'll do Donkey.. That'll do.

Edit. I mean it. That calming way shrek says it. The idea that enough has been done, and that everything is OK. That I'm ok. It's a lovely, and powerful moment in the film that translates to so many day to day situations.

Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.

Genuinely how I try to live my life, be kind and helpful to others and enjoy myself doing it.

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.

Earl Nightingale

Someone shared the phrase "The time will pass anyway" with me back when I was working on getting healthier. It was a constant reminder that there was no "best" day to start my journey and that anytime I was set back, I could pick things back up right away.