"I only really care about what my kids think of me. The other things I'm not in control of, so it doesn't interest me much."
— Sting, musician and frontman for the Police (the band, for you unfortunate, unfamiliar youngsters), when asked what he wanted his legacy to be
Muhammad Ali often showed amazing recuperative ability late in a fight. And he said this: "Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even."
"I'm really a shy, library person. I'm an introvert, a writer – just trying to translate what's in my chest.... I'm a writer first, and writers are some of the most introverted kooks there are. It definitely makes no sense, but I have to bridge the gap and do what needs to be done for the work. I'm painfully shy, and I have horrific stage fright. It doesn't come naturally to me at all.... Still, you have to draw yourself out.... I have a robust prescription of beta-blockers."
— Lorde, musician
"Be good, just be good.... And when you're good, the universe brings you stuff.... When was your last 'oh shit' moment? Like 'Oh shit! I'm exposed, I'm vulnerable here! When is your next one? Because that's when the magic happens."
— John Herdman
"I've studied anxiety all my career, but maybe what I've really been studying is not anxiety per se, but neuroticism, which is the tendency to view the world in a threatening, unpleasant kind of way. Learning to withstand the feelings that make us antsy may be the X factor that separates people who excel in life from those who don't."
— David Barlow, Ph.D.
"The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe."
— Albert Einstein
"Your ability to tolerate uncomfortable emotions is probably the broadest single psychological concept we know how to change, and with the biggest impact that I know of."
— Steven Hayes, Ph.D.
"My family was artistic and encouraged me to express myself.... (Dancing professionally) taught me discipline.... Acting has been a strong force in my life, but it was hard to change direction. I didn't make a paycheck for two years.... Tom Cruise loves moviemaking, so it was a pure joy to be on set with him (in The Mummy).... Storytelling is important, so I keep exploring and reading."
— Sofia Boutella
The shark is the one predator that has survived from the days when dinosaurs ruled the earth. That's because no matter what, it always, always keeps moving, and only moving forward, eating as it goes. Sharks cannot swim backwards.
Prince Charles was subjected to a fairly rigorous morning routine at boarding school, comprised of a run before breakfast and a frigid shower. The prince became so accustomed to the routine – or maybe he just enjoyed it and its benefits? – that as an adult he continued to take a cold shower each day.
"I'm the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was."
— Muhammad Ali
"If you even dream of beating me, you better wake up and apologize"
— Muhammad Ali
"A man who has no imagination has no wings."
— Muhammad Ali
Man, that is a good one. I'm going to repeat it! A MAN WHO HAS NO IMAGINATION HAS NO WINGS!
"At home, I'm a nice guy, but I don't want the world to know that...."
— Muhammad Ali
I'm so mean, I make medicine sick.... I'm young; I'm handsome; I'm fast. I can't possibly be beat."
— Muhammad Ali
Sidney Poitier spent the first 10 years of his life in the Caribbean, on Cat Island in the Bahamas. It was a sun-drenched paradise without glass windows, doors, or storefronts and thus free of man-made reflections. "I never got a fix on my color," Poitier would write of those years. "No reason to." He didn't see himself in a mirror until the family moved to Nassau, when he was 10. And it wasn't until he was 15, when his aging parents sent him to live with an older brother in Florida, that he met institutional racism, which baffled him. Poitier went north within a year, uneducated, broke, and alone, but with a wealth of wisdom from parents he revered. "Charm them, son, into neutral," his mother once told him. And that's what he did, in New York City. Poitier, who turned 90 in 2017, has written eloquently about his coming-of-age and magisterial career - more than 40 films - in three books." (from Vanity Fair magazine)
When asked to comment on acting as 'her calling,' actress Suki Waterhouse made this modest statement: "All anyone does is act, starting as a baby playing peekaboo for applause. Then, when you get into the business side, 90 percent is dealing with rejection."
Doctors and scientists are more and more investigating an interesting – and to me, ironic – idea or hypothesis, which is basically: A lot of problems today come from living in too sterile an environment.
Here's a useful exercise: Name some successful cynics. You can't. Look at some of the most successful people in the past 10 years: Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, George Clooney, the Google guys, Bono. They're not too cynical. (from Men's Health magazine)
Acts of giving stimulate the production of dopamine.
Exercise is medicine. Take care of your teeth. Lower inflammation. Avoid processed carbs and sugar as much as possible. Higher HDL cuts cancer risk. Get enough rest. Breathe.
"For Ahmet and for me, on of the great joys of life has been the study of history, music, languages, literature, art, and archeology.... I believe it is tremendously important to support those things that endure across time... and make the world a more humane place."
— Mica Ertugen
"I have never feared the unknown; rather, I fear the known." (The interviewer suggests she seems hardwired for contendedness.) "I tend to love everything, actually." (Her father gave her the best advice she was ever given.) "'Never, never give up.' That used to ring in my head. 'When times get tough, stay in the boat.'"
— Joanna Lumley
"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
— Thomas Edison
"I believe everyone should take at least four supplements: a multivitamin, vitamin D, omega-3s, and a probiotic. It's almost impossible to get all the nutrients you need in food today – and our needs are higher because there are so many toxins in the environment.... Exercise is a wonderful tool (but don't let it stress you out, or you're defeating the purpose).... The ultimate answer to stress is meditation (to stimulate the body's parasympathetic response).... The four keys to living a long, healthy life are exercise, diet, supplements, and stress reduction. There are also the intangibles: meaning in your life, love in your life. These are touchy-feely subjects that men don't seem to get, but when people feel passionate about what they do, they're healthier. When they're part of a community or go home to a loving family, they're healthier. You can't give a prescription for love or meaning, but they're crucial to good health."
— Frank Lipman
Everyone assumes, 'Oh, he's from the '40s and he's so idealistic.' But for him three weeks ago it was World War II. That's one of the most appalling things men have ever been through."
— Joss Whedon, writer and director of The Avengers, talking about Captain America.... This spoke to me because M 'n' m's great-grandfather was in WWII. He was in combat; his unit liberated a concentration camp; he suffered the whole brutal experience. And M 'n' m's other great-grandfather was in the Korean War. It puzzles me.... I never heard them curse or be indecorous or disrespectful; of course, they might've picked other audiences for that, but I think it would've leaked here or there, and on a certain level they really did seem to possess a kind of properness, idealism, or expectation of behavior you don't see today. And yet, imagine the things they saw.... It leaves me to wonder: were they more cynical than people today, or less? Would they agree with the great quote from MLK, repeated by President Obama: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." And this, it seems comes from a longer piece by a minister and abolitionist named Theodore Parker: "Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of (doing) the right (thing). I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
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