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Quote by Nikki Giovanni

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Nikki Giovanni
Nikki Giovanni

Nikki Giovanni is an American poet, writer, and activist, born on June 7, 1943. She is renowned for her poignant and evocative poetry that frequently tackles social and political issues. Giovanni's writing has had a profound impact on the African American literary community and beyond, earning her numerous awards and accolades for her literary contributions. more

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“Humans are very strange creatures, unconscious too, dominated by mechanics that are hidden in front of their eyes. They call you wrong when you quote their own books, completely oblivious to the fact you may have been the author, even when they claim to believe in reincarnation. They always think their interpretation of reality is more right than that of others, even when you use their own books to explain their mistakes. If you tell them you write books of a spiritual nature, they may call you a liar if you don't match their deductions on what spirituality is. If you don't tell them you write books, they will in many cases recommend you to do it, because of how you speak, even though your speaking is the result of a mental training accumulated with the exercise of writing. If you tell them that you want to write a book, however, they may laugh and tell you it's a waste of time. If you love someone, she will lose interest and if you don't, she will want to know why. If you teach inside a classroom or a temple, people listen to you, but if you speak outside these two places they don't, unless they want something from you. They call you selfish if you don't give them what they want, but act selfishly when you ask the same from them. They don't want to be lied to but lie to others, and they don't want to be afraid but enjoy being in control. They talk about injustices but never apologize. When you are near they ignore you, and when you disappear they remember you. They say life is about luck but they create their own luck every day.”

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Author:Dan Desmarques
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“We like to imagine that it's possible for life to be one eternal summer and that we have uniquely failed to achieve that for ourselves. We dream of an equatorial habitat, forever close to the sun, an endless, unvarying high season. But life's not like that. Emotionally, we're prone to stifling summers and low, dark winters, to sudden drops in temperature, to light and shade. Even if by some extraordinary stroke of self-control and good luck we were able to keep control of our own health and happiness for an entire lifetime, we still couldn't avoid the winter. Our parents would age and die; our friends would undertake minor acts of betrayal; the machinations of the world would eventually weigh against us. Somewhere along the line, we would screw up. Winter would quietly roll in.”

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Book:Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
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“True justice is paying only once for each mistake. True injustice is paying more than once for each mistake. How many times do we pay for one mistake? The answer is thousands of times. The human is the only animal on earth that pays a thousand times for the same mistake. The rest of the animals pay once for every mistake they make. But not us, we have a powerful memory. We make a mistake, we judge ourselves, we find ourselves guilty and we punish ourselves. If justice exists then that was enough. We do not need to do it again. But every time we remember, we judge ourselves again, we are guilty again, and we punish ourselves again and again and again. If we have a wife or husband, he or she also reminds us of the mistake so we can judge ourselves again, punish ourselves again, and find ourselves guilty again. Is this fair? How many times do we make our spouse, our children, or our parents pay for the same mistake? Every time we remember the mistake, we blame them again and send them all the emotional poison we feel at the injustice. And then we make them pay again for the same mistake. Is that justice?”

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Book:The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
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“The worst mistake everyone makes is to analyze their self-image through the reflections the world mirrors because the world will never ever mirror something that is equal or better than what you show but always inferior. People don't feel comfortable near individuals that make them feel bad unless they want something or admire them, which is often not the case because of envy and resentment. Consequently nobody will ever show you your best qualities. They will hide them from you by never telling them to you. Instead, they will reflect back at you your mistakes and insecurities. When you don't want to fight, people insult you, when you are being polite, people disrespect you, and when you ask questions, people take the opportunity to make you feel stupid. Nobody will ever show you the real you. As a matter of fact it is more comfortable for them to believe who you are is all you can be.”

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Author:Dan Desmarques
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“Some readers have said that it's crazy that a great book is so cheap, but unfortunately the rule applies that they won't know that until they read, and they won't read unless it's essentially free. People expect the best things in life to be free and they rarely are, or there wouldn't be any advantage or the need to accumulate money. Know how the rules you impose on yourself contradict your own actions and you will make less mistakes in life.”

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Author:Dan Desmarques
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“On what regards the topic of reincarnation, as with most topics that are hard to understand through a metacognitive approach, try to see it from different momentums, from the most recent to the oldest, and you will notice that you have been living many lives inside the current body as well. So it doesn't matter so much who we were or the mistakes we made as much as our capacity to change. The topic of forgiveness starts fundamentally with ourselves. It is at the core of our heart that we develop the potential to change.”

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Author:Dan Desmarques
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