#27 30 Day Writing Challenge- A Quote I try to Live By

I am obsessed with quotes.

Even though quotes are just excerpts of a bigger idea, list, speech, book, etc., reading a bunch of smaller quotes somewhat helps to understand the bigger picture of things.

My blog even has a Quotes Page! It has 3 sections, 1 is things I have written, another is general quotes and the last are quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

One of my favourite authors/writers is Ralph Waldo Emerson. He is absolutely amazing. If I believed in reincarnation, I would say I was probably him in a past life. A lot of our ideas and philosophies are really close. Not the same, but close.

Anyways, my favourite quote that I "try to live by" is:

 "Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today"

 This is from Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" which is the best essay, ever written.

I plan to get it tattooed on my right forearm, once I am of legal age to get tattoos.

This quote means a lot to me. When I first read it, I feel absolutely in love with it.

I think it is important to feel confident in what you say, and you should also be fine with changing your mind. That's basically what this quote means to me, is that you should say whatever you want, and if you change your mind completely the next day, voice your opinion. It's okay to change your mind. It's okay to say what you want.

I have changed my mind about philosophies, a lot. Recently I have had less interest in anarchy. There was a time when I described myself as an anarchist. Now, not so much. I still think anarchy is really fascinating, but I've sort of stopped.

I feel like you could pull up so many different things I have said from the past, even from blog posts not too long ago, and I have changed my mind about something I have said.

A second quote that I also value a lot, I had the same reaction to. I just felt so good and when I read it, I fell absolutely in love with it, as well. It is by Mark Twain, who I also love.

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform"

This quote can also be known as "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect" which is a misquote, that was probably created to help define the word "reform". Essentially this quote means that if your idea is the same as everyone else, you should stop and think about why, and make sure you are not conforming to the majority, just because it is the majority.

I think it is fine to go along with the majority, as long as you know why and that is what you believe.

I considered getting this as a tattoo, but I am not 100% sure on it yet. I still love this quote, too. I represents my skeptical and non-conformist self. 

Anyways. I hope you found these quotes as inspiring as I do! 

Do you have any quotes you try to live by?

My life is imagined

On Friday I was on stumbleupon and came across this post.

Number 4 of that post really caught my eye.

Essentially, the author stated that most of life is imagined. It really makes sense and kind of explained a lot.

As humans we spend so much time thinking, that thinking is really a large part of our lives. Even if it isn't just thinking about what's for dinner or what the meaning of life is.

I find myself running through random scenarios in my head all of the time. Often I'll take events or conversations that happened, and re-imagine them to go the way I wanted, or even a completely terrible way.

I really can't help my mind that much. It just wanders and then suddenly I realize that no, I have not won the lottery, or no, I have not lost all of my teeth, and that I am actually just sitting at my desk.

I know I can't be alone in this. But I do feel like I do this a lot more than the average person, because I like to spend a lot of time by myself. If I am doing something menial, like my job, or cleaning or going for a run or walk, or I am at the gym, I tend to imagine a lot of things.

So I realized: That a lot of my life IS imagined. Even more than the average person.

I don't think it is a bad thing, I like my imaginations in my life. As a kid I had imaginary friends, now I don't go to that extent now, but I do like to run scenarios through my head and picture how things might be different if X happened or if Y happened.

The author pointed to the quote "I've been through some terrible things in my life, some of which have actually happened" by Mark Twain.

I love this quote so much. I relate to this so well. Quite often when I can't sleep at night it's because I am imagining some intense, bad, terrifying scenario, and I can't shake it. This just reminds me of that quote. I think it is kind of funny.

This is also an amazing post about imagination and how big of a role it plays.

Man, I love my imagination.