Overturn

It is vastly easier to find new words than it is to overturn old habits.
--Verlyn Klinkenborg

Unspoken

Every society is really governed by hidden laws, by unspoken but profound assumptions on the part of people, and ours is no exception.
--James Baldwin

Consumers

As practitioners of consumption, Americans lead poorly edited lives. We end up with basements and attics full of items that looked amazing in the store or online, but that lost their sparkle once they left the Bubble Wrap.
--David Carr

Politeness

Politeness is another word for deception. The point is to formalize social relations so you don't have to reveal your true self.
--James W. Pennebaker

Attachment

Getting old is the second-biggest surprise of my life, but the first, by a mile, is our unceasing need for deep attachment and intimate love.
--Roger Angell

Our Society

That notion that capital is the metric, that profit is the metric by which we're going to measure the health of our society is one of the fundamental mistakes of the last 30 years.
--David Simon

Animals

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd,
I stand and look at them long and long.
They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago,
Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.
--Walt Whitman (Song of Myself)

Let Go

We must let go: Let go of our past, become reconciled with ourselves, and accept that we will be diminished in one respect in order to grow in another.
--Marie de Hennezil

Mistaken

We always have to acknowledge that we might be mistaken. When we forget that, then we forget ourselves and the worst can happen.
--Simon Critchley

Held

We fought all night and then we danced
in your kitchen.
You were as much in my hands
as water or darkness or nothing
can ever be held.
--Jeffrey Foucault

Miracle

Until we really realize what a miracle it is that we even exist, all our petty disputes and all of our selfish pursuits--everything will perpetuate and we're going to kill ourselves off.
--Natalie Merchant

Time

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
--Charles Darwin

Conversable Animal

A full-grown horse or dog is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day or a week or even a month old. But suppose the case were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason? Nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
--Jeremy Bentham

Uncertainty

Human knowledge is personal and responsible, an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.
--Dr. Jacob Bronowski

Mystery

All people contain mystery, and when you act, you want to plumb that mystery until everything is known to you.
--Meryl Streep

If I'm Alive

This isn't everything, there will be another film, there will be another relationship, or I'll die and then I'll be dead. But if I'm alive I know life is going to keep throwing things at me.
--Philip Seymour Hoffman

Alone

Sometimes when I see a great movie or a great play I think: being human means you're really alone.
--Philip Seymour Hoffman

Reinvent

There's that thing with being younger. You think it's all or nothing. You think all your eggs are in one basket when you're young. You're gambling. Whereas when you're older you realize you can reinvent--you think, this feeling I have is going to pass.
--Philip Seymour Hoffman

Human Condition

Well, I think everyone struggles with self-love. I think that's pretty much the human condition, you know, waking up and trying to live your day in a way that you can go to sleep and feel okay about yourself.
--Philip Seymour Hoffman