Where Code Meets Canvas

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools: If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!' If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

— Rudyard Kipling

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men, who find it easier to live in a world given to them, than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact, it's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration, it's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.

— Adidas

I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me. Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it -- I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me. If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded. I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me. I am me, and I am Okay.

— Virginia Satir

With a stop light, green means 'go' and yellow means 'slow down'. With a banana, however, it is quite the opposite. Yellow means 'go', green means 'whoa, slow down', and red means 'where the heck did you get that banana?'

— Mitch Hedberg

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start running.

— Thomas L. Friedman

I recently pierced the veil of a long-standing delusion which I had considered to be reality. The delusion was simply this: I thought people were deeply aware of me. I thought the things going on in my life -- my work, relationships, problems, joys, thoughts, insights, attitudes, tastes, desires, fears, good hair days, bad hair days, choice of pants (that's right, choice of pants), etc. were all of some significance to other people. I'm not certain, but I think the delusion is a twisted sort of family heirloom, a neurotic hand-me-down of the fiercely-held immigrant desire to fit in, to be acceptable. Be that as it may, the impact of this hallucination has been a constant state of low-grade anxiety. While it's still a little early to tell, it appears that freedom from it will create an enormous sense of relief and... well... freedom. You people out there, kind and considerate though you may be, don't really give a rat's ass about my life. You give a rat's ass about your life. This means I need no longer obsess over what others think of me (they don't). This means that I am, much to my amazement, more or less invisible. But most importantly, this means that I can begin living a fearless, delusion-free life that is fundamentally true to my basic, God-given nature. All that's left to do is discover what kind of pants my basic, God-given nature looks good in.

— Chuck Lorre

I believe I think too much. I believe I'm literally drowning in a thick swamp of thoughts. No, swamp's not right. It's more like being in the middle of a swarm of bees, all of them flying insanely about, occasionally stinging for no apparent reason. Yup, bees, definitely -- thoughts are bees. In fact, I believe my entire understanding of the world is based on my thoughts, which are generated by my emotions, which are generated by ... well, I guess my reaction to stuff that happens. Anyway, I understand the world through the filter of my thoughts and emotions. If this is pretty much how you understand the world, it brings up an interesting concept. Probably since we were infants, none of us have directly perceived this world we live in. What does it mean to directly perceive something? Well, I suppose it would mean to be totally with that thing, as opposed to observing and thinking about it. It's a duality issue. Here's me, here's you. here's me, here's the sofa. Ya dig where this is going? We live on a planet dominated by a race of beings whose only connection to reality is constantly buzzing, mental bees. We're all walking through life in a dream state that is, at best, a funhouse mirror-image of what's really out there. It makes you think, doesn't it? Ouch! Dammit!

— Chuck Lorre

He may be mad, but there's method in his madness. There nearly always is method in madness. It's what drives men mad, being methodical.

— G.K. Chesterton

After three days of riots, the statesman Talleyrand was sitting by his window in Paris and listening to the bells pealing away in Paris that signaled the end of the riots. "We're winning" he muttered. "Who's we?" his assistant, asked him. "Shush," said Talleyrand, "I'll tell you who we are tomorrow."

— Talleyrand

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived — I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms...

— Henry David Thoreau

Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

— William Ernest Henley

Bombay - Maximum City! Mother of Cities to me, For I was born in her gate, Between the palms and the sea, Where the world-end steamers wait.

— Rudyard Kipling

Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda, Worship Govinda. Oh fool! Rules of Grammar will not save you at the time of your death. Oh fool! Give up your thirst to amass wealth, devote your mind to thoughts to the Real. Be content with what comes through actions already performed in the past. Do not boast of wealth, friends, and youth. Each one of these is destroyed within a minute. Free yourself from the illusion of the world of Maya and attain the timeless Truth. Born again, death again, birth again to stay in the mother's womb! It is indeed hard to cross this boundless ocean of samsara. Oh Murari! Redeem me through Thy mercy.

— Adi Shankaracharya

There's no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love. There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

— Wayne Dyer

What would you do if I sang out of tune, Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song And I'll try not to sing out of key. Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends Do you need anybody I need somebody to love Could it be anybody I want somebody to love.

— John Lennon and Paul McCartney

I wanna get a job naming kitchen appliance. Seems like the easiest job ever. You know, refrigerator, toaster, blender...you just say what the thing does and then you add '-er'. Kitchen Appliance Naming Institute. "What does this do?" "It keeps shit fresh." "Well, that's a 'fresher'. I'm going on break."

— Mitch Hedberg