Just some of my sayings, life’s learned lessons, and kick-up-the-backside wisdom and thoughts that keep me going. Funny, wise, blunt, raw, personal. Also check out my Articles and Humour pages.
“When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him. In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus
“Too often activism is reactivism when it should be creativism or cractivism!”
“Less opposition more proposition!”
“I spell Beautiful – ‘be-you-to-the-full’“
“Evolution and solution not revolution”
“I want to know your why as well as your what”
“Don’t jump to conclusions, jump to conversations“
“Debate speech not hate speech”
“Dialogue is twice as good as monologue“
“Live each day, not as if it’s your last – but as if it’s your first”
“We need conversation culture not cancel culture, communication not confrontation, collaboration not conflict, coexistence not conquest.”
“Empathy is asking the why behind someone’s what, the feelings behind their fact – from their perspective not yours.”
“We earn the right to be heard when we learn the light of listening. To be heard and understood, one first has to be willing to hear and understand.”
“I do believe in the individual in terms of human rights to bodily autonomy, freedom of expression, and the right to a private life. It’s when we intersect with others in society that our coexistence needs discussion, not our existence or expression.”
“Getting up is a success in itself, laying down can be self-care, balancing them on high and low days is the trick”
“It is the quality of how we live, in whatever circumstances and trials, not the quantity of our life, by which we should be measured. How we have grown, not what we have known. Not our faults and failures but how we learned from them and how many times we got back up again. Not our principles and judgements but how we stopped judging and sought justice. A little more reflection rather than reaction, in this world, would not go amiss. An attitude of gratitude, of making the best of it, not having the most of it. In disputes and discussions, of engaging not enraging, debate not hate, communicate don’t excommunicate, discussion not repercussion, of agreeing to disagree rather than the binary opposition of assuming your being right makes everyone else wrong rather than just of a different mind.”
“I pride myself on having left my emotional and psychological baggage at lost luggage, with no intention of reclaiming it. Leave it lost!”
“It’s better to build bridges than to burn them”
“There isn’t an app for success, just application!”
“Do engage but don’t enrage“
“There’s no moral high ground when you’ve sunk to the lowest levels of debate and attack”
“I believe in free speech but fair speech, i.e. without hate speech, political argument not personal attack. Take apart ideas not the person.“
“The first time I was accused of being erudite, I had to look it up!”
“I prefer inspiration over perspiration when it comes to motivation!”
“Life is just not black and white, even if some cats are… life is more, well… tortoiseshell!
“I’m not interrupting, I’m interacting”
“People say don’t make decisions when depressed or down but if you’re feeling at the bottom the only way is up so why not give anything a try!”
“It’s not about give and take, but give and give”
“The most crippling disability in life is disbelief – in yourself and in others.”
“Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the romance of the unusual.” – Ernest Hemingway
“You give me the space to be me in our togetherness”
“Live your life not a lie”
“Who else can you rely on to love you except yourself, everyone or anyone else loving you is a bonus! After all “love your neighbour as YOURSELF” was good advice”
“Write because you can, not because you have to – financially speaking; write because you have to, not because you can – passionately speaking.”
“Fashion goes out of vogue, but style is always in“
“If you’re moving in the right direction, don’t force the speed.”
“There’s a thin line between laugh and hate”
“Before judging me, ask me what it is actually like to be me“
“Make life happen, don’t let it happen”
“My skeletons are firmly out of the closet – after all there is no room for them in there next to all my clothes!”
“I am known by being me … to be anyone else is to be unknown…”
“‘My door is always open’ puts all the emotional labour on the person asking for help. Why not leave your office regularly, come down from the career ladder and check in on folk where they are at”
Happiness, that “secret bin of sweetness” – Mary Oliver
“Every moment is a new possibility we do not need to be bound by history, culture, context, belief or mind. Practice, risk, faith and loving ourselves more will let us pioneer creating new things, great things, amazing things”
“Safe spaces need to be brave spaces, for risk not from it. We grow from risking new encounters not avoiding them. Practice psychological bravery alongside psychological safety“
“Why aim to fulfil your potential, when you could plan to exceed it!”
“Why behave and conform if you can be brave and perform?”
“Finding and feeding your inner fabulous”
“Instead of being your own worst enemy be your own bff“
“The joy of searching and finding your goals is as important as pursuing the one(s) you finally settle on. The very adventure of it surpasses the actual achievement of it. Enjoy the self-discovery journey!”
“I don’t give up, or grow up – but I go on giving and growing!”
“If you don’t like life’s view, change your perspective or try a different lens.“
“The present is the gift that keeps on giving.”
“Freedom without restriction is anarchy. Freedom without purpose is apathy. Freedom without security is fear. Freedom without provision is worry. The only true freedom is that of freedom of thought, for it cannot be taken away from us, except perhaps by certain cruel illnesses of the mind.”
“I’m not an anarchist but an anarkist – I lack sleep” (from ἀν an, “not/without” + νάρκη narkē, “numbness” not ἀρχός archos “rule”)
“Don’t live in hope…live in expectation”
“Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”, The Guest House – Rumi
“MAGIC is just Manifestation Attraction Gratefulness Intention Courage”
“I see a very long term present, and endless flow.”
“Having attempted suicide a few times, the last one by overdose, for the next one I intend to overdose on oxytocin!”
“You are the best thing in my already wonderful life”
“I have more of a flirt and friend response to strangers, than fight or flight!”
“Instead of Artificial Intelligence we need Accurate Intelligence”
“When one gets to an end of oneself, one discovers oneself, the power within to change – when it’s easy you don’t need a miracle, when it’s hard it can be depressing, but when it appears impossible – suicide or growth through personal miracle are the only options!”
“Don’t feel selfish putting your self first, being self-ich/ik. Self-full is way better than being self-less/empty and in order to love others and put them even close to your priorities you need a healthy sense of self, a full tank, something to give from and an absence of guilt about protecting/recharging/boundaries/honest ‘No’s.”
“Ditch the shame and enjoy the game! Shamelessly go after what you want.”
“I gave up guilt for Lent. The following year I gave up Lent so I could not get it back.”
“Don’t just survive, thrive”
“Your present is actually the sum total of your past, your future is made up of what you decide now”
“Attitude is greater than aptitude, belief in yourself can be more important than alleged measured ability, your Belief Quotient is more important than your Intelligence Quotient. Get a BQ not an IQ!”
“FEAR can be spelled – ‘Feel Energised And Ride!'”
“When choosing either/or what is wrong with both?”
“The best gift is unboxing another person.“
“Instead of react, relax and act.”
“Share your little niggle before it becomes a great big nasty nag”
“Work for your passion not your pension!”
“Fear is living in the anticipation and anxiety, Living is being in the event itself – the worse that can happen is that it will be as bad as the fear you’ve already lived in – so you’re used to it; the best that it can happen is that you will enjoy it and conquer another no-go area. You may even like it!“
“Don’t feed the fear, free the fear!“
“A definition of an oxymoron: ‘unconventional dreams’, I mean if you are going to dream why would you dream conventionally? Dream wildly, extravagantly, truly, madly, deeply. If you were ‘granted three wishes…’, dream along those lines, do not limit your imagination, the only risk is that is might come true!”
“Some people say it is not about arriving, it is all about the journey. Journey, what journey, all I can see is the restaurant car!”
“You are never truly alone when you are fully present with yourself“
“Facing fear and discovering the joy of self-love was all part of my comedy-confidence-coming out adventure.”
“Beauty is in the character and its reflection in the person, so transcends age and gender”
“I live for and with questions”
“Don’t follow the crowd, lead it or leave it“
“I like being naked with you, sometimes I even take my clothes off!”
“That’s Tolkien-sized Orc-ward!”
“I’ve given up sorting out the baggage of the past and didn’t even go to Life’s Baggage Reclaim after the last trip down memory lane – I only pack for today’s daytrip and tomorrow’s adventure!”
“A day apart is good for the heart!”
“I’m a citizen of the world and universe, not a random geopolitical nation drawn and redrawn on a map according to conquest and bequest, and a mere accident of my birth. Like an astronaut returning from space I see the whole earth as my home.”
“I have a firm arse, from being well sat on and spoken out of”
“I have sex all day and every day – mental, verbal, sensual, olfactory, occasionally it may involve 2 people in bed!”
“Life is neither make do nor make believe but ‘Make it so'” (with gratitude to Captain Jean Luc Picard)
“I want to make my site hyperactive, I mean hyperlinked and interactive”
