It's All You

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."
-Ernest Hemingway

I like this quote a lot because it not only says something profound, but also helps the reader undersand it in the next part. "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man," When people think of nobility, usually kings and queens come to mind; being of noble status. However, nobility can also mean 'fine personal qualities,' or 'high moral principles.' This quote could possibly be talking about this definition. If so, this quote is saying, "It doesn't matter if your morals are better than everyone else's. As long as you're improving, yourself you are a good person." I think this quote is referring to that. No one can judge you, you are your own person. There is no 'standard perfect person,' We are all human. Everyone makes mistakes. While some mistakes are bigger than others, everyone deserves a second chance. The important thing is to learn from them, and if you're doing that, it does not matter what other people think—and more importantly, what other people say.

Forgive and Forget

"We can all be a little more forgiving."
-Howard W. Hunter

I love this quote; I think it's so wise. There are so many things that wrong us in one day. They may not be big things, but they are there. The majority of them are forgotten and we go on with our day. It would be so tiresome to keep track of all the wrongs all people have done to us in only one day. When we let go of feelings of anger and resentment we can be happier. I've never heard of someone who's happy and angry at the same time. I've heard of people who are happy and hurt. Hurt is something that always fades with time, but anger is something that we can let go of because it doesn't involve anyone except ourselves. Often times, forgiving is the easiest way to let go of anger. Forgiving is like a conscious effort to forget.

May 22, 2013:
I've discovered that forgiveness is a gift that you not only give to others, but it's also something you give to yourself. When feelings are hurt, forgiveness is something that liberates you. I've recently discovered that forgiveness is when you dust yourself off and pick yourself off without waiting for someone or something else to lift you. Forgiveness is how your heal yourself. The other person may do all in their power to make it up to you, or to fix the problem; but until you help yourself, no one anyone does will make a difference.

There are Shadows Everywhere.

"Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining nearby."
-Ruth E. Renkel

I'd like to place this into the category of too much cheese on the cheeseburger. But after thinking about it a little bit, I was struck by the implication it has. Never fear shadows, never fear shadows, never fear shadows. I think this quote is more about overcoming fear. And as we all know, overcoming fears, or anything for that matter, requires courage. Courage isn't always the person who volunteers to go to war. Sometimes, courage is the person who stays to comfort those left behind. This quote also encourages courage in another way. It says not to give in, for the light is coming; whatever challenge you are facing will become easier to bear.

It's no one's fault but our own.

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
-Cassius

This is a quote that I haven't had for very long, but I was instantly struck by it. I was reading "The Fault in Our Stars," by John Green. You can find a summary here. I think this is possibly his best book yet. He, of course, derived the title of his book from Cassius.

The word stars could imply the future, and I think that is what Cassius was getting at. In my opinion, this quote is saying that it's not the future we should be looking at.  Cassius is saying that we should think not just about the present, and what we are doing with it. But what we are physically doing with ourselves. The problem isn't our future, the problem is ourselves. It's not, we have to make sure our future is secure; it's we have to make sure we are secure with ourself. By changing ourselves, we are changing our future.

This one is really about thoughts; literally.

"There are no facts, only interpretations."
—Freidrich Nietzsche

So this is a quote that I ran across when I was looking at a group on Facebook called, "Truth Beckons." In all honestly, I believe that they post a lot of good things. It bothers me a bit that they flag Israel as the enemy so much, but that's another quote, and another opinion.

This quote has always meant a lot to me. I think of it as: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and not everything is black and white. I don't believe that there is more than a handful of questions one can answer, 'yes or 'no' to. "Would you like fries with that?" is one of them; it's really very simple. You either are hungry for fries or you're not. The situations regarding 'Israel vs. Pakistan', the food industry in the United States, Malaria in Africa, and gender equality, poverty, and hunger in the world are questions that take a little more time. No matter how long people debate these situations, they simply cannot come up with a solution that makes everyone happy.

And that, my dear friends, is why this quote has literally no power when stating an opinion. When trying to instill your opinion on anything, saying this quote is like whipping out the white flag (placed conveniently in your pocket of course) and waving it in your 'opponent's' face. You are stating your opinion as fact—that's why you are arguing with this said person—but this quote says that your opinion isn't fact. It's only another interpretation.