inspiration
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Apple, Inc.
When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.
That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.
The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.
I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.
Steve Jobs in interview for PBS’ One Last Thing documentary, 1994.
“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.
They are but trifles, to be sure, but, scattered along life’s pathway, The good they do is inconceivable.”
— Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
Cheerfulness is the gift of sharing warmth and optimism. Sincere good cheer tends to engender happiness, energy, and responsiveness in those around us. This quality may spring from a spontaneous upwelling of joy and good will that cannot be contained; it may also refer to a deliberate choice to focus on what is good and right in the world.
“The most completely lost of all days is that on which one has not laughed.” –– Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794)
Cheerfulness allows us to move through challenges, assuring us we are capable and resourceful; it tends to increase both the quality and quantity of our years.
“Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if your cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there.”
— William James (1842-1910)
Elysian Waters 