Ernest Hemingway (July 21st, 1899 – July 2nd, 1961) was an American writer and journalist. He wrote seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction books, some of which are classics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954 for his novel The Old Man and the Sea.

The Sun Also Rises, his first novel, was published in 1926. His experiences during the war led to A Farewell to Arms, his 1929 novel.

Below we list some words of wisdom from Ernest Hemingway.

“Develop a built-in bullshit detector.”

“Before you react, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you criticize, wait. Before you quit, try.”

“The rain will stop, the night will end, the hurt will fade. Hope is never so lost that it can’t be found.”

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.”

“Life breaks all of us but some of us get stronger in the broken places.”

“The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.”

“Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.”

“Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep, really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.”

“I love you for all that you are, all that you have been, all that you’re yet to be.”

“Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be.”

“Night is always darker before the dawn and life is the same, the hard times will pass, every thing will get better and sun will shine brighter then ever.”

“The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”

“The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.”

“Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years. If something is wrong, fix it if you can. But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything.”

“You must be prepared to work always without applause.”

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”

“Being against evil doesn’t make you good.”

“The only thing that can ruin a good day is people.”

“If two people love each other there can be no happy end to it.”

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.”

“To be successful in writing, use short sentences.”

“When you stop doing things for fun you might as well be dead.”

“Go all the way with it. Do not back off. For once, go all the goddamn way with what matters.”

“Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”

“To hell with them. Nothing hurts if you don’t let it.”

“I drink to make other people more interesting.”

“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.”

“Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the Romance of the unusual.”

“I was always a lonely person when I was with everyone.”

“No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.”

“Be fully in the moment, open yourself to the powerful energies dancing around you.”

“The world breaks everyone or nearly everyone, of their childish illusions, assumptions and wishes, often painfully and afterwards due to the personal growth in practical experience, insight and the resulting wisdom many are strong at the broken places just like mended broken bones often are, and some people even have the great insight to be grateful for the purifying fire.”

“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.”

“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with that there is”

“No one you love is ever truly lost.”

“America is the land of wide lawns and narrow minds.”

“Show the readers everything, tell them nothing.”

“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?”

“How little we know of what there is to know.”

“Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth.”

“Home is where the heart is, home is where the fart is. Come let us fart in the home. There is no art in a fart. Still a fart may not be artless. Let us fart and artless fart in the home.”

Copyright © 2025 Stephen Petullo, Scott Petullo 

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Italo Calvino (October 15, 1923 – September 19, 1985) was an Italian novelist, short-story writer, and essayist whose imaginative and intellectually playful works reshaped modern literature. His masterpieces include Invisible Cities, If on a winter’s night a traveler, The Baron in the Trees, and Cosmicomics. Calvino blended fantasy, philosophy, and linguistic precision to explore the nature of storytelling, memory, and human experience. A master of fable and metafiction, he remains one of the most beloved and influential voices of 20th-century literature.

Writer Gore Vidal praised Calvino, saying, “He was the most original and delightful of modern fabulists, a magician of language who made the impossible seem inevitable.

Below, we list some words of wisdom from Calvino, drawn from his novels, essays, and lectures.

“Seek not to know who you are, but to know what you are.”

“Arriving at each new city, the traveler finds again a past of his that he did not know he had.”

“Falsehood is never in words; it is in things.”

“Melancholy is sadness that has taken on lightness.”

“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”

“The universe will express itself as long as somebody will be able to say, ‘I read, therefore it writes.’”

“What matters is not the enclosure of the work within a harmonious figure, but the centrifugal force produced by it.”

“A human being becomes human not through the abstract exercise of thought, but through the concrete act of living.”

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret.”

“One reads thousands of books to write one.”

“Memory’s images, once they are fixed in words, are erased.”

“The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.”

“Every choice has its history, so many moments of our existence are shrouded in the fog of forgetfulness.”

“Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be.”

“The satirist is prevented by repulsion from gaining a clear vision of the world such as the novelist’s.”

“Every time I write a book, I am trying to answer a question I don’t know how to ask.”

“In love, as in gluttony, pleasure is a matter of the utmost precision.”

“The more one is aware of the fragility of things, the more one loves them.”

“Traveling, you realize that differences are lost: each city takes to resembling all cities.”

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.”

“The book I’m looking for is the one that gives me the sense of the world after I’ve finished it.”

“Futures not achieved are only branches of the past: dead branches.”

“To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.”

“Every morning I tell myself: ‘Today you will be a man.’ And every evening I say: ‘Tomorrow, perhaps.’”

“Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river.”

“What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open, different from measurable time and space.”

“Classics are those books which constitute a treasured experience for those who have read and loved them.”

“Reading is a possession, a conquest, a continuous act of appropriation.”

“The ultimate meaning to which all stories refer has two faces: the continuity of life, the inevitability of death.”

“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here.”

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Copyright © 2025 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo 

Abraham Stoker (November 8th, 1847 – April 20th, 1912), known by his pen name Bram Stoker was the Irish author of Dracula, published in 1897. He became regarded by many as the father of vampire fiction.

Stoker wrote twelve mystery and horror novels. Dracula was one of the best-selling works of vampire fiction since the early 20th century and Count Dracula is one of the well-known fictional figures of the Victorian era. There have been more than 700 adaptations of the character.

He had an interest in the occult for his writing, but hated fraud and believed in the scientific method over superstition. Stoker was a Freemason and rose to the degree of Master Mason.

Below we list some words of wisdom from Bram Stoker.

“We learn of great things by little experiences.”

“There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights.”

“We learn from failure, not from success!”

“Remember my friend, that knowledge is stronger than memory, and we should not trust the weaker”

“The only beautiful thing in the world whose beauty lasts forever is a pure, fair soul.”

“I want you to believe…to believe in things that you cannot.”

“No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.”

“There is a reason why all things are as they are.”

“Once again…welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”

“But we are strong, each in our purpose, and we are all more strong together.”

“I will not let you go into the unknown alone.”

“I sometimes think we must be all mad and that we shall wake to sanity in strait-waistcoats.”

“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.”

“Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!”

“Though sympathy alone can’t alter facts, it can help to make them more bearable.”

“Do you believe in destiny? That even the powers of time can be altered for a single purpose? That the luckiest man who walks on this earth is the one who finds… true love?”

“Souls and memories can do strange things during trance.”

“For life be, after all, only a waitin’ for somethin’ else than what we’re doin’; and death be all that we can rightly depend on.”

“I suppose a cry does us all good at times-clears the air as other rain does.”

“Oh, the terrible struggle that I have had against sleep so often of late; the pain of the sleeplessness, or the pain of the fear of sleep, and with such unknown horror as it has for me! How blessed are some people, whose lives have no fears, no dreads; to whom sleep is a blessing that comes nightly, and brings nothing but sweet dreams.”

“Love is, after all, a selfish thing; and it throws a black shadow on anything between which and the light it stands.”

“It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment.”

“Our toil must be in silence, and our efforts all in secret; for this enlightened age, when men believe not even what they see, the doubting of wise men would be his greatest strength.”

“My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side.”

“There are mysteries which men can only guess at, which age by age they may solve only in part.”

“How good and thoughtful he is; the world seems full of good men–even if there are monsters in it.”

“I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt; I fear; I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own soul. God keep me, if only for the sake of those dear to me!”

“But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one. Men know him not, and to know not is to care not for.” ~ Bram Stoker

“Euthanasia” is an excellent and comforting word! I am grateful to whoever invented it.”

“The inscrutable laws of sex have so arranged that even a timid woman is not afraid of a fierce and haughty man.”

“Let me tell you, my friend, that there are things done today in electrical science which would have been deemed unholy by the very man who discovered electricity, who would themselves not so long before been burned as wizards”

“Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? But there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men´s eyes, because they know -or think they know- some things which other men have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.”

“The Stars are a long way off, and their words get somewhat dulled in the message.”

“I have a sort of empty feeling; nothing in the world seems of sufficient importance to be worth the doing.”

“It is wonderful what tricks our dreams play us, and how conveniently we can imagine.”

“All men are mad in some way or the other, and inasmuch as you deal discreetly with your madmen, so deal with God’s madmen too, the rest of the world.”

Copyright © 2025 Stephen Petullo, Scott Petullo

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Soren Kierkegaard (May 5, 1813 – November 11, 1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and writer, widely regarded as the father of existentialism. His works, including Fear and Trembling, Either/Or, The Sickness Unto Death, and Works of Love, explore themes of individuality, faith, despair, and the human condition. Writing often under pseudonyms, Kierkegaard challenged conventional thinking, emphasizing personal choice and the leap of faith in the face of life’s uncertainties. His profound insights continue to influence philosophy, theology, and literature.

Philosopher Albert Camus reflected on Kierkegaard’s impact, stating, “Kierkegaard’s voice, with its passionate clarity, awakens us to the absurd and the necessity of authentic existence.”

Below, we list some words of wisdom from Kierkegaard, drawn from his philosophical writings.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

“The function of souls is to help one another. This is the beginning of love.”

“Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays.”

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.”

“Faith is the highest passion in a human being. Many in every generation may not come that far, but none comes further.”

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”

“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.”

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”

“Once you label me, you negate me.”

“The greatest hazard of all, losing oneself, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all.”

“What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music.”

“Truth always rests with the minority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion.”

“Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.”

“The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.”

“Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.”

“To cheat oneself out of love is the most terrible deception; it is an eternal loss for which there is no reparation.”

“Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.”

“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.”

“Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.”

“People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”

“The self is a relation which relates itself to its own self.”

“Boredom is the root of all evil—the despairing refusal to be oneself.”

“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.”

“Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer.”

“It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.”

“The task must be made difficult, for only the difficult inspires the noble-hearted.”

“Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all.”

“What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act.”

“Purity of heart is to will one thing.”

“The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.”

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

“Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown.”

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Copyright © 2025 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo 

Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst. His seminal works, including The Interpretation of Dreams, Civilization and its Discontents, and Beyond the Pleasure Principle, revolutionized the understanding of the human mind, introducing concepts like the unconscious, the Oedipus complex, and defense mechanisms. Freud’s theories on sexuality, dreams, and the psyche profoundly influenced psychology, literature, and culture.

Carl Gustav Jung, a contemporary and former collaborator, noted, “Freud’s work has opened a window into the depths of the human soul, revealing truths that challenge and enlighten.”

Below, we list some words of wisdom from Freud, drawn from his writings and lectures.

“Dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.”

“The unconscious of one human being can react upon that of another without passing through the conscious.”

“One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”

“We are what we are because we have been what we have been.”

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.”

“The mind is like an iceberg; it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.”

“We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love.”

“Where id was, there ego shall be.”

“The first requisite of civilization is that of justice.”

“Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.”

“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”

“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.”

“The ego is not master in its own house.”

“Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine.”

“Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.”

“The madman is a dreamer awake.”

“Everywhere I go, I find a poet has been there before me.”

“Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.”

“The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization.”

“No one who, like me, conjures up the most evil of those half-tamed demons that inhabit the human breast, and seeks to wrestle with them, can expect to come through the struggle unscathed.”

“A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.”

“Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.”

“Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.”

“What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.”

“The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is ‘What does a woman want?’”

“Time spent with cats is never wasted.”

“Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts.”

“He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”

“The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing.”

“Every normal person, in fact, is only normal on the average. His ego approximates to that of the psychotic in some part or other and to a greater or lesser extent.”

“From error to error, one discovers the entire truth.”

“Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair.”

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Copyright © 2025 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo 

Franz Kafka (July 3rd, 1883 – June 3rd, 1924) was a Jewish Czech writer and novelist born in Prague. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His best-known works include the novella The Metamorphosis (1915) and the novels The Trial (1924) and The Castle (1926).

He trained as a lawyer but he felt that his true vocation was writing. Only a minority of his works were published and received little attention during his life. He died relatively unknown in 1924 of tuberculosis, aged 40.

Kafka’s work has influenced many people including film-makers, historians, religious scholars, artists, and philosophers.

Below we include some words of wisdom by Franz Kafka.

“Isolation is a way to know ourselves.”

“As far as I have seen, at school…they aimed at blotting out one’s individuality.”

“There are times when I am convinced I am unfit for any human relationship.”

“No matter how much you keep encouraging someone who is blindfolded to stare through the cloth, he still won’t see a thing.”

“What if I slept a little more and forgot about all this nonsense.”

“Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.”

“If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you’re okay. Who watches out or you and wants the best for you. Who loves and respects you. Don’t let them go. People like that are hard to find.”

“Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.”

“It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.”

“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”

“Do not waste your time looking for an obstacle – maybe there is none.”

“You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”

“People label themselves with all sorts of adjectives. I can only pronounce myself as ‘nauseatingly miserable beyond repair’.”

“Paths are made by walking”

“We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime.”

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”

“Anybody who preserves the ability to recognize beauty will never get old.”

“You are at once both the quiet and the confusion of my heart.”

“Just because your doctor has a name for your condition, doesn’t mean he knows what it is.”

“I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.”

“He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.”

“There are some things one can only achieve by a deliberate leap in the opposite direction.”

“Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often — and in my inmost self perhaps all the time — I doubt whether I am a human being.”

“If the literature we are reading does not wake us, why then do we read it? A literary work must be an ice-axe to break the sea frozen inside us.”

“Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.”

“I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.”

“I am constantly trying to communicate something incommunicable, to explain something inexplicable, to tell about something I only feel in my bones and which can only be experienced in those bones. Basically it is nothing other than this fear we have so often talked about, but fear spread to everything, fear of the greatest as of the smallest, fear, paralyzing fear of pronouncing a word, although this fear may not only be fear but also a longing for something greater than all that is fearful.”

“Nothing is as deceptive as a photograph.”

“We need the books that affect us like a disaster”

“I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea.”

“I wanted to escape the unrest, to shut out the voices around me and within me, so I write.”

“There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.”

“Being alone has a power over me that never fails. My interior dissolves (for the time being only superficially) and is ready to release what lies deeper. When I am willfully alone, a slight ordering of my interior begins to take place and I need nothing more.”

Copyright © 2025 Stephen Petullo, Scott Petullo 

Martial (c. 38 – c. 104 AD), known as Marcus Valerius Martialis, was a Roman poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103. In these short, witty poems, he satirizes city life, the scandalous activities of his acquaintances, and romanticizes his youth. Considered the creator of the modern epigram, Martial’s work provides a vivid portrayal of Roman society, blending humor, criticism, and insight into human nature.

Pliny the Younger remarked after Martial’s death, “He was a man of an ingenious, sharp-tempered disposition, who had in his writings as much good nature as wit and pungency.”

Below, we list some words of wisdom from Martial.

“Tomorrow’s life is too late. Live today.”

“Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it.”

“Why do strong arms fatigue themselves with frivolous dumbbells? To dig a vineyard is worthier exercise for men.”

“Glory paid to our ashes comes too late.”

“There is no glory in outstripping donkeys.”

“Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.”

“If fame is to come only after death, I am in no hurry for it.”

“Rarity gives a charm; so early fruits and winter roses are the most prized; and profusion debases the value of pearls no less than diamonds.”

“Life’s not just being alive, but being well.”

“You give me nothing during your life, but you promise to provide for me at your death. If you are not a fool, you know what I wish for!”

“Some good, some so-so, and lots plain bad: that’s how a book of poems is made, my Friend.”

“Whoever makes great presents, expects great presents in return.”

“He who refuses praise the first time that it is offered does so because he would hear it a second time.”

“The flaw which is hidden is deemed greater than it is.”

“Fortune gives too much to many, but to no one enough.”

“I do not hate the man, but his vices.”

“To the ashes of the dead glory comes too late.”

“Virtue extends our days: he lives beyond the allotted span who dies in his own lifetime.”

“Too late is tomorrow’s life; live thine today.”

“You complain, friend Swift, of the length of my epigrams — but you yourself write nothing. Yours are shorter.”

“If you want him to mourn, you had best leave him nothing.”

“Gifts are like hooks.”

“While you cannot resolve what you believe in, you will never learn to live well. And if you do not learn to live well, you will waste an entire lifetime.”

“He writes nothing whose writings are read by none.”

“Our days pass quickly on, each one flying after the next: Today we’ve seen nothing of, and yesterday’s already gone.”

“You puff the poets of other days, the living you deplore. Spare me the accolade: your praise is not worth dying for.”

“Joys do not stay, but take wing and fly away.”

“No man is born without faults.”

“Wine and women bring misery to men.”

“Neither fear your death’s day nor long for it.”

“One man has friends in proportion to his wealth, another because of his kindly affability.”

“Believe me, wise men don’t say ‘I shall live to do that’, tomorrow’s life is too late; live today.”

“Servitude and freedom are ever in opposition.”


Our FREE Spiritual Detox Script can help you get rid of toxic energy and help you make the most of your life. http://spiritualgrowthnow.com/script/ 

Learn more about spiritual myths, meditation and how to use it to your advantage, and much more with our Direct Your Destiny e-Package: http://spiritualgrowthnow.com/directyourdestiny/ 

Copyright © 2025 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo 

Banana Yoshimoto (born July 24th 1964) is the pen name of Japanese writer Mahoko Yoshimoto. She began her writing career while working as a waitress in 1987. Her debut work, Kitchen had over 60 printings in Japan alone. Two film adaptations were produced from the book. Her works include twelve novels and seven collections of essays, all of which have sold over six million copies worldwide. She writes about love and friendship, home and family, and the influence of loss on the human spirit.

Below we include some words of wisdom by Banana Yoshimoto.

“Sometimes people put up walls, not to keep others out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.” 

“As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won’t let my spirit be destroyed.” 

“I love feeling the rhythm of other people’s lives. It’s like traveling.”

“Once you’ve recognized your own limits, you’ve raised yourself to a higher level of being, since you’re closer to the real you.” 

“Truly happy memories always live on, shining. Over time, one by one, they come back to life.” 

“If you don’t say what you’re thinking, you end up lying when you really need to speak up.” 

“When things get really bad, you take comfort in the placeness of a place.” 

“It’s a marvelous thing, the ocean. For some reason when two people sit together looking out at it, they stop caring whether they talk or stay silent. You never get tired of watching it. And no matter how rough the waves get, you’re never bothered by the noise the water makes by the commotion of the surface – it never seems too loud, or too wild.” 

“No matter where you are, you’re always a bit on your own, always an outsider.” 

“When was it I realized that, on this truly dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely. Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time.” 

“But I have my life, I’m living it. It’s twisted, exhausting, uncertain, and full of guilt, but nonetheless, there’s something there.” 

“What was important wasn’t the fireworks, it was that we were together this evening, together in this place, looking up into the sky at the same time.” 

“The ritual of our daily lives permeate our very bodies.” 

“I really believe that no matter how old people get, they tend to change in certain ways depending on how people treat them – they change their colors.” 

“Love is the kind of thing that’s already happening by the time you notice it, that’s how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn’t change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types — love where there’s an end in sight and love where there isn’t.” 

“It was so gorgeous it almost felt like sadness.” 

“People who are going to get along really well know it almost as soon as they meet. You spend a little while talking and everyone starts to feel this conviction, you’re all equally sure that you’re at the beginning of something good. That’s how it is when you meet people you’re going to be with for a long time.” 

“The place I like best in this world is the kitchen. No matter where it is, no matter what kind, if it’s a kitchen, if it’s a place where they make food, it’s fine with me. Ideally it should be well broken in. Lots of tea towels, dry and immaculate. Where tile catching the light (ting! Ting!)”

“No one can survive childhood without being wounded. Everyone remembers at least one time when their parents rejected them, pushed them away, even though they may have still been in the womb, blind, and unable to speak. That’s why, as adults, we all look for someone to become our parents again, and for someone to look after us in times of need. And we search for a person to live with who can provide the companionship we so desperately want.” 

“Truly great people emit a light that warms the hearts of those around them. When that light has been put out, a heavy shadow of despair descends.” 

“She was still there inside me now, just as she always was: a life put on hold, a memory I didn’t know how to handle.” 

“People aren’t overcome by situations or outside forces. Defeat comes from within.” 

“Her eyes were those of someone who’s just fallen in love, someone who sees nothing but her lover, someone who has no fear of anything. The eyes of someone who believes that every dream will come true, that reality will move if you just give it a push.” 

“Recognizing how totally ignorant you are is the only honest way to deal with people who’ve been through something traumatic.”

“That’s the advantage of insomnia. People who go to be early always complain that the night is too short, but for those of us who stay up all night, it can feel as long as a lifetime. You get a lot done” 

“The sky was incredibly far away, and beautiful enough to make a person wonder why our hearts are never so free.” 

“Over and over, we begin again.” 

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Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 118 AD), was a Roman historian and politician, known for his critical and insightful accounts of the Roman Empire. His major works, The Histories and The Annals, provide a detailed history of the Roman Empire from the reign of Tiberius to that of Domitian. Tacitus also wrote Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola, and Germania, an ethnographic study of the Germanic tribes. His writings are valued for their depth, style, and historical accuracy, offering a critical perspective on the Roman Empire’s politics and society. Tacitus held various public offices, including quaestor, praetor, and consul, and was known for his sharp critique of imperial excesses while remaining loyal to Rome.

The historian Edward Gibbon praised Tacitus, saying, “The writings of Tacitus have been justly esteemed as the first of historical compositions, both for elegance of style and fidelity of narration.”

Below, we list some words of wisdom from Tacitus, drawn from his historical works.

“Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.”

“Truth is confirmed by inspection and delay; falsehood by haste and uncertainty.”

“To show resentment at a reproach is to acknowledge that one may have deserved it.”

“Viewed from a distance, everything is beautiful.”

“Fortune assists the bold.”

“The first thing which disappears in times of general corruption is a sense of shame.”

“The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.”

“Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure.”

“If you would know who controls you, see who you may not criticize.”

“They make a desolation and call it peace.”

“Crime, once exposed, has no refuge but in audacity.”

“The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.”

“A bad peace is even worse than war.”

“The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more, and tolerated by all.”

“He could bear the loss of his money, but not of his good name.”

“The love of fame is the last thing even the wise give up.”

“Rumor is not always wrong.”

“It is human nature to hate the man whom you have hurt.”

“The lust for power is the most flagrant of all passions.”

“The worst disease of the mind leaves no feeling of hunger at all.”

“To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.”

“The gods are on the side of the stronger.”

“It is a law of nature that men should be slaves to those who are stronger than themselves.”

“The most detestable wickedness is to use a feigned piety as a cloak of mischief.”

“The hatred of those left behind is engraved upon the earth.”

“It is the rare fortune of some men to be, when they want it, as eloquent as they will.”

“A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means.”

“The face of the world has changed; it no longer knows the Romans.”

“Things forbidden have a secret charm.”

“This I regard as history’s highest function, to let no worthy action be uncommemorated, and to hold out the reprobation of posterity as a terror to evil words and deeds.”

Our FREE Spiritual Detox Script can help you get rid of toxic energy and help you make the most of your life. http://spiritualgrowthnow.com/script/ 

Learn more about spiritual myths, meditation and how to use it to your advantage, and much more with our Direct Your Destiny e-Package: http://spiritualgrowthnow.com/directyourdestiny/ 

Copyright © 2025 Scott Petullo, Stephen Petullo