It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose.

That is not weakness, That is life

~ Picard to Data, Star Trek:  The Next Generation

My favorite song today

Imagine what you want 

Then get out of the way 

Remember energy follows thought 

So be careful what you say 

Be careful what you ask for 

Make sure it's really what you want

Because your mind is made for thinking 

And energy follows thought 

Your mind is in control 

Even when you do not know 

And if you let it idle 

Ain't no telling where it'll go 

Wherever you are sleeping 

And your dreams take you away 

Go on with your dreaming 

And listen to what they say 

And if you hear spirits talking 

Their wisdom can't be bought 

Apply it to your thinking 

And energy follows thought 

Your mind is in control 

Even when you do not know 

And if you let it idle 

Ain't no telling where it'll go 

Imagine what you want 

And get out of the way 

Remember energy follows thought 

So be careful what you say

~ Willie Nelson, Energy Follows Thought,  from A Beautiful Time

If the shoe fits...

I don't recognize myself anymore.

Not in my laughter, not in my silence.

Somewhere between surviving and

pretending, I became a stranger

to my own soul.

~ found on the interwebs

True

The more often a man feels

without acting, the less he

will be able ever to act, and

and in the long run, the less he

will be able to feel. 

 C.S. Lewis

Oof!

No silence hurts

like the one

that comes

after the voice

that felt like home

goes silent.

~ David Jones, Love and Space Dust, Volume II

That's a lie!

To offend a strong man, tell him a lie;

To offend a weak man, tell him the truth

~ Marcus Aurelius

Why not both?

Anyone can love the mountains; it takes a soul to love the prairie.

~ Willa Cather

Despair, indeed...

I met a traveller from an antique land, 

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, 

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, 

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, 

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; 

And on the pedestal, these words appear: 

    My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; 

    Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! 

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare 

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, in Ozymandias

I made a pact with myself

"Do you love Me?" Alice asked.

"No, I don't love you!" replied the White Rabbit. 

Alice frowned and clasped her hands together as she did whenever she felt hurt.

 "See?" replied the White Rabbit. "Now you're going to start asking yourself what makes you so imperfect and what did you do wrong so that I can't love you at least a little. You know, that's why I can't love you. 

You will not always be loved Alice, there will be days when others will be tired and bored with life, will have their heads in the clouds, and will hurt you. Because people are like that, they somehow always end up hurting each other's feelings, whether through carelessness, misunderstanding, or conflicts with themselves. 

If you don't love yourself, at least a little, if you don't create an armor of self-love and happiness around your heart, the feeble annoyances caused by others will become lethal and will destroy you. 

The first time I saw you I made a pact with myself: 'I will avoid loving you until you learn to love yourself.' "

 ~ Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

I concur

A man who views the world the same at 50 as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

~ Muhammad Ali

Say what now?

People tell you who they are, 

but we ignore it.

Because we want them to be who we want them to be.

~ Don Draper, on Mad Men