BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Inspiration Inspiration Quote

I feel that we're all lighthouses, and my job is to shine my light as brightly as I can to the darkness.

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey’s career began in 1977 when he made his first stand-up comedy appearance at the age of 15. After he found TV stardom on the sketch comedy "In Living Color," global fame came in 1994, a breakthrough year in which he starred in not one but three smash films: “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” “The Mask,” and “Dumb and Dumber.” His unique blend of riotous slapstick and funny faces made him a beloved household name, but he also showed real acting chops in movies such as “The Truman Show,” “Man on the Moon,” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Whether he’s playing the Grinch or God, Carrey has always sought to bring his unique light to the performance. “I'm going to do whatever I can to bring to the world something creative, something challenging, something inventive,” he told the “L.A. Times.” “And whenever possible, when pain happens, when confusion happens, when disillusionment happens, I turn it into something.”

The point is not to pay back kindness but to pass it on.


Julia Alvarez

The celebrated Dominican American writer Julia Alvarez has an uncanny ability to cut to the center of the human experience. Her poetry and prose often focus on her identity as a Dominican woman growing up in the United States. This quote, however, comes from Alvarez’s essay “Aha Moment,” in which she describes a terrifying plane ride, and the many moments of kindness she saw in that one small space. Reflecting on that experience, she found that kindness inspires more kindness, and we should pay it forward whenever we can.

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

Stephen Covey

First published in 1989, Stephen Covey’s book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and is widely regarded as one of the most influential self-help books ever written. By all accounts a down-to-earth, kind man of intellect and faith, Covey built his teachings around the concept of nurturing win-win relationships — the idea that we will never succeed long term in any endeavor unless we strive, in all we do, to make sure that the people we work with benefit as much as we do.

Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” is a romantic comedy involving twins, shipwrecks, a love triangle, and so-called cross-dressing. Throughout, Shakespeare plays with traditional gender roles, while also experimenting with plays within the play — a kind of metatheatre. When Olivia tries to woo Cesario (who is in fact Viola in disguise), she states with this line that love is best when it comes freely and unsought, rather than being actively searched for. As with most romantic comedies, both old and new, everything works out in the end, with true identities revealed and marriages successfully proposed.

You build your mind, so make it into something you want to live with.

Marilynne Robinson

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson is known for the beauty, philosophical depth, and deeply considered optimism of her work. Ever humble and expansive, Robinson credits her own teachers for the wisdom her readers and students so value. “We were positively encouraged to create for ourselves minds we would want to live with,” she has said about the educators she loved in her youth. “I had teachers articulate that to me: ‘You have to live with your mind your whole life.’ …Nobody has ever said anything more valuable to me.”

The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate.

bell hooks

This quote from author and social activist bell hooks appeared in her essay “Love as the Practice of Freedom,” published in 1994. In the piece, she presents her concept of an “ethic of love,” arguing for compassion — long revered in the world's organized religions — to be integrated into the social and political realms as well. “A culture of domination is anti-love,” hooks wrote, insisting that only love can bring about freedom and equality for all people.

Most people rush after pleasure so fast that they rush right past it.

Søren Kierkegaard

Often considered the father of existentialism, Søren Kierkegaard was born in 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark, shortly after the country fell to the British in the Napoleonic Wars. He grew up in a time of great change, studying literature and philosophy among artists and thinkers from Berlin, Dresden, and Rome. It was the Danish Golden Age, and Kierkegaard wrote prolifically on ideas such as authenticity, commitment, and responsibility. In his book “Either/Or,” he writes about the human tendency to flee from boredom and lose oneself in seeking sensual pleasures. With this quote, he cautions the reader to slow down, lest they miss the delightful details of life altogether.

Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses, and disappointments.

Joseph Addison

When, in 1702, British, Dutch, and Austrian troops beat the French at the Battle of Blenheim during the War of the Spanish Succession, English poet, essayist, and playwright Joseph Addison was asked to commemorate the occasion with a poem. The finished work was a wild success, and eventually led Addison to a career in politics. He wrote essays and plays throughout his later life, even as he moved through various government positions. He retired just a year before his death in 1719, but his prose lives on in lines like this one, cementing his position as one of the most influential writers of his time.

It's so true. I was recently reminded of this. Our biggest challenges can bring our biggest gifts.

Thank you!

Ruptures almost always lead to a stronger project.

Anne Carson

Acclaimed writer Anne Carson is as well known for her translations of ancient scholarly texts as she is for her own experimental written work, which often weaves together poetry with essay and even opera, rock, dance, and other mediums. A veteran collaborator, she has worked with the likes of Lou Reed, the Merce Cunningham dance company, and what, for some, could be the most challenging collaborator of all: her husband (Robert Currie, a visual artist). But Carson resists the idea that collaboration could lead to irreparable differences, disagreements, or fallings-out. Asked what she does when a rupture arises, she replied, “Simply do something else and return to it later to find the problem wasn't a problem at all.” Obstacles, for Carson, are simply opportunities to think about the work in new ways.