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1 " But Paying It Forward is about spontaneously offering favors, not needing to say yes when someone asks too much of you. And also, it’s about kindness rather than niceness. There’s a difference. Kindness is spontaneous and real. Niceness just mostly wants to be liked. "
― Catherine Ryan Hyde , The Long, Steep Path
2 " This idea opened a door to my seeing that the rigors and trials of a task that big are not brick walls designed to keep me out. They’re just pop quizzes to determine how badly I want in. "
3 " In my humble and exhausted opinion, joy beats comfort every time. "
4 " my thoughts about happiness: I’ve been experimenting with the idea that it’s a decision. Now, that’s an easy statement to argue. You may say, “But there’s so much I can’t control, and it makes me unhappy.” Right. True. There’s a lot we can’t control. But if we could be happy anyway, then we could be happy. "
5 " If I’m working to ascend anything—a steep piece of trail, my own personal or spiritual growth, or an ambitious goal—I’ve learned not to keep looking up. It would only remind me what a daunting task I have in front of me. It would only help me be daunted. I found a way that works much better for me. Here’s what I learned to do, and it helped. A lot. I focused on the step I was taking. The current one. The now step. I did that over and over. And over. And over. And over. Until I’d taken many more steps than I thought I had in me. Then I turned around and looked back down the trail. Wow, I thought. Wow! I’ve come a long way. "
6 " Well, child, I’d tell you to be careful, except for two things. One, it wouldn’t do any good anyhow. And two, I think we tell each other that too much. Be careful. Don’t get hurt. Don’t take chances. Don’t try anything. Don’t feel. Might as well be telling each other not to be alive at all. Boils down to the same thing. "
7 " Only I can control the messages in my head. I may not have installed them, but, with great effort and a lot of practice, I can at least choose what to play at what time. These are the best two life lessons I ever learned on a tough trail in the great outdoors: One, not to look up and see how far I still have to climb. Instead to look back and see how far I’ve climbed already. When I see what I just did, I know I can do what comes next. Given time. And, two, to give myself time. "
8 " In my novel Chasing Windmills, Delilah tells Sebastian, “Well, child, I’d tell you to be careful, except for two things. One, it wouldn’t do any good anyhow. And two, I think we tell each other that too much. Be careful. Don’t get hurt. Don’t take chances. Don’t try anything. Don’t feel. Might as well be telling each other not to be alive at all. Boils down to the same thing.” Then she stands back and allows him to walk down an ill-advised path into a first love. He gets hurt. And ends up right where he needs to be. "
9 " But if I were to simply remain within my comfort zone, clinging to the way I want to feel—unchallenged—my comfort zone would just keep getting smaller. "
10 " Paying It Forward is about spontaneously offering favors, not needing to say yes when someone asks too much of you. And also, it’s about kindness rather than niceness. There’s a difference. Kindness is spontaneous and real. Niceness just mostly wants to be liked. "
11 " We can be angels to each other. We are angels to each other, all the time. And we should be. No divine intervention required. Just a sense of staying together and looking out for each other. You know. Safety in numbers. "
12 " Sometimes I wonder if anything that happens to us is ever a mistake. The Zen masters say, “There is absolutely nothing wrong with this moment. "
13 " When my parents called “lights out,” I was the kid under the covers, finishing my book quietly by flashlight. This is passion that can’t be taught. Encouraged. But not taught. "
14 " Here’s what I learned from Lenny in my sophomore year of high school: the down-and-out character is just as human as everybody else. You may not want to know him in real life, but in fiction, you just might dare. And in knowing him, you get a lesson in humanity: we’re more the same than we might imagine. And that even the class outcast has talents. Someone just needs to tell her what they are. "
