Rachel Post > Rachel's Quotes

“He's the one. And some thoughts once thought are very hard to unthink.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“Reality is crushing. The world is a wrong-sized shoe. How can anyone stand it?”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“In one split second I saw everything I could be, everything I want to be. And all that I’m not.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
― Mark Twain

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
― Mark Twain

“In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.”
― Mark Twain

“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.”
― Mark Twain

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
― Mark Twain

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”
― Albert Einstein

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”
― Albert Einstein

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
― Albert Einstein

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”
― Albert Einstein

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
― Albert Einstein

“Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.”
― Albert Einstein

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.

—"Old Man's Advice to Youth: 'Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.'" LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. 64”
― Albert Einstein

“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
― John Muir

“The world's big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.”
― John Muir

“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
― John Muir

“The sun shines not on us but in us.”
― John Muir

“As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can".”
― John Muir

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.”
― John Muir

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul”
― John Muir

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

“Listen--are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?”
― Mary Oliver

“The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.”
― Mary Oliver

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
― Robert Frost

“Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.”
― Robert Frost

“If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane.”
― Robert Frost

“All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson