Wise Words: P. D. James

The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves.

Wise Words: Marvin Bell

Much of our lives involves the word ‘no.’ In school we are mostly told, ‘Don’t do it this way. Do it that way.’ But art is the big yes. In art, you get a chance to make something where there was nothing.

Wise Words: Pema Chodron

Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior’s world.

Wise Words: Marvin Minsky

What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle.

Wise Words: Rebecca Solnit: story

The ability to tell your own story, in words or images, is already a victory, already a revolt.

Wise Words: Jorge Luis Borges

It is often forgotten that [dictionaries] are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.

Wise Words: John Locke

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

Wise Words: Georgia O’Keeffe

I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life – and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.

Wise Words: J. R. R. Tolkien

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

Wise Words: Juan Ramon Jimenez

If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.