BellaOnline Forums Beauty and Self Inspiration Inspiration Quote

Such truth. Love works miracles. If only we humans could recognize that love the the greatest power on Earth, and I don't mean romantic love.

love one another as God loves us.

Some people try to destroy you, precisely because they recognize your power.

bell hooks

Known for her groundbreaking works on the topic of intersectional feminism, writer and social activist bell hooks wrote honestly and elegantly about the challenges Black women face in society. She points out here that often, marginalized people who have achieved success, fame, and influence are targeted by those who fear the change that comes from empowerment. “Not because they don’t see [your power],” she said, “but because they see it and they don’t want it to exist.”

Giving Thanks for Thanksgiving
by Joseph Pearce

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.

Cicero

I would mention that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

G. K. Chesterton

There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf’s extended essay “A Room of One’s Own” is one of the seminal texts of feminist literature. The essay explored a range of themes, from gender inequality and the subjectivity of truth, to the nature of creativity and the need for financial independence. The essay’s title derives from this latter point, asserting that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” Woolf praised Jane Austen and Emily Brontë, who each had the strength and freedom of mind to ignore the pressures of criticism in a patriarchal society, and produced truly authentic literature. These two authors, Woolf explained, were unshrinking in their genius and integrity. “They wrote as women write, not as men write,” Woolf observed — which, especially in their time, was a brave act of creative defiance.

All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else.

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov is considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers of the 20th century, alongside Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. Hugely prolific, he wrote or edited some 500 books, ranging from guides to the works of Shakespeare to collections of lewd limericks. But he is best known for his hard sci-fi novels, especially the “Foundation” and “Robot” series. Asimov was a professor of biochemistry at Boston University, so he certainly knew his science. He knew people too; like his friend and fellow writer Kurt Vonnegut, he served as the president of the American Humanist Association. Indeed, societal evolution plays a key role in Asimov’s Hugo Award-winning “Foundation” series, whose central characters try to predict the outcomes of galaxy-spanning events — while also trying to understand one another on a personal level.

It is not enough to know your craft — you have to have feeling.

Édouard Manet

Though he is now a renowned artist, French painter Édouard Manet’s work was considered strange and even scandalous in the 19th century. His paintings often broke artistic conventions in both form and content, depicting subjects such as nude women and bullfighters. His commitment to painting reality, rather than restrictive social norms, cemented his reputation as a groundbreaking artist. With these words, he encourages us not to fall back on structure: The more heart we put into something, the more likely it is that its effects will ripple out beyond ourselves.