Inspirational Quotes 52

I'll just be myself...

I’ll just be myself and act very professional. (Lisa, girl queuing for Star Wars audition)

For an individual to escape from unfair preconceptions and cliquishness while remaining in the same work environment can be almost impossible. You often need to begin all over again: with no history, in a new place and with new colleagues. Jeremy Bullmore, Guardian Nov 2013

Lee Harvey Oswald was not without a certain charm, and had an untutored intelligence. But both wore thin with familiarity. People liked him well enough to begin with, liking him less as they got to know him. (Times Nov 2013)

He soon baulks at the drabness of political activism. (Adam Lively on Howard Jacobson’s The Finkler Question Times Aug 10)

I remember going through the 1960s watching my friends  become Maoists or Althusserian feminists or God knows what else and thinking: "This is garbage." (Tony Judt)

This reminds me of my own indifference to the business world when I was a graduate student, and thought I was well informed on everything important—you know, semiotic theories of gender and decentered subjectivities in 18th century novels and that sort of thing. My arguments about these subjects with my peers were so VITAL. (Rob Horning, popmatters.com)

There comes a time when you have to hand in your gun and badge. (Steve Coogan as washed-up roadie Saxondale)

Drawing a line in the sand gives one the power to cross the line. (Roger K)

He got a girlfriend, went to Glastonbury and became involved in the squatting and free party scene… He began to engineer problems with their relationship… he became distant. [One woman was told that her lover had fled to South Africa, so she followed.] The fruitless search drained her savings and affected her health. [But some undercover police “went native” and refused to come out of cover.] (LRB review of Undercover: The True Story of Britain’s Secret Police)


Most dating tips advise “dating loads of people at once and withholding sex for as long as possible. Until he ‘commits’.” (scarletwilde.com)

Some unattached women choose “in a relationship” for their profile just so people won’t start matchmaking or single-girl-pitying. A single woman of a certain age is a prime target for people who think everyone should be paired off in "happily ever after" relationships. (askmen.com)

When you’re single and of a certain age, you get used to people inquiring about your status. Just a couple of years ago, the whole, “oh no I’m single” was usually met with a, “good for you” or, “you’re young man, this is the time for you to have fun.” I’ve noticed that once I hit 25, this collective enthusiasm had started to wane. Now, more than less, I feel like I get a strangely sympathetic reaction. “You’ll find someone” or “don’t worry there’s someone out there for everyone,” I’m told, sometimes accompanied by a reassuring pat on the back. Or sometimes it’s shock and mild disapproval. More than one person has reminded me that I’m not getting any younger, which is kind because that’s not common knowledge or anything. (A man on goodemenproject.com)

More here, and links to the rest.