Preface: I know I do a lot of prefaces and forewords and what not but this one is important for you to understand. In a fictional story I love (The Adventure Zone by The McElroy Brothers) there is a character who’s name is Taako. He is wonderfully hilarious, quite narcissistic, positive in a way I can only dream to be, and fabulously insightful (and just fabulous.) In a story he joked a lot about how he wrote a book of very inspirational quotes that were almost all plagiarized from other famous people. But a fan of the show made a website where when you click a button it randomizes a random quote from someone that makes sense for Taako, (I will try to find the original speaker of the quote and cite them). These are often hilarious and ridiculous and I wish to put ten of the best ones i could find in here today. (Also stick around until the end for a quote that Taako plagiarized and one he made up all on his own, both I’ve built almost my entire life around)
1. The easier you make it for people to go, the more likely they are to stay
-Unknown (maybe actually Taako)
2. Where do new ideas come from? The answer is simple: differences. Creativity comes from unlikely juxtapositions.
— Nicholas Negroponte
3. After finishing a design you take a step back and a little voice pops in your head and says, “Wow. You should really just quit while you’re ahead.” Don’t ever listen to that voice. Ever.
— Brittany Grabowski
4. Creativity often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?
-Unknown
5. If you do what you always did, you will get what you always got.
-Claimed by many people including but not limited to Albert Einstein, Henry Ford, and Mark Twain, Take your pick.
6. Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.
-Judy Garland
7. Create your own visual style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
-Orson Welles
8. Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.
-Charles R. Swindoll
9. Train your mind to see the good in everything. Positivity is a choice. The happiness of your life is dictated by your thoughts.
-An Unknown someone I’d like to be my friend
10. Did you know that there are some seeds that cannot sprout unless they are first burned? A friend once told me that. And I think it is interesting that there are some living things that need to pass through fire before they flourish.
I ramble. You have the heart of a gardener, and because of this you think of consequence, and your current path pains you. I am not wise, and I do not give advice, but I have come to know a few things. Sometimes breaking is making. Even iron can start again, and there are many things that move through fire and find themselves much better for it afterward.
-Patrick Rothfuss
Bonus Quotes:
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don‘t matter and those who matter don‘t mind.
-Dr Seuss
Sometimes there aren’t right decisions. Just decisions.
-Taako (Justin McElroy)
For some context on #10 the whole letter can be found in link below, its definitely worth the read.