Jan 24, 2012 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Creative Manifestos

I came across this beautiful list of inspirational quotes from Brain Pickings, Five Manifestos for the Creative Life:

Empower yourself and realise the importance of contributing to the world by living your talent. Work on what you love. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.

When I find a good quote, I like to print it out or illustrate it to tape it above my computer. On days when I feel tired or uninspired, I take a breath, look at one of my quotes, and try to embody the essence of what it is that I liked about the quote in the first place.

For the same reason, I’ll also print out emails from friends, teachers, and family to help keep me motivated. Kind words are a reminder that what we’re doing is useful, whether it’s related to your blog, your job, or your family. With writing in particular, a good quote can help get you writing when (you think) you’d rather be watching TV. It can also jump start your own story. How many times have you looked at a quote and thought, “Okay, now’s my time to write something memorable”?

Where do you find inspirational words? Better yet, what’s your favorite quote that you’ve written yourself?

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  1. This quote always inspires me and gives me strength for the day.
    “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strengh; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 KJV

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  2. Oh i have come up with a new one just now, so read it… ” you are a good writer if you can perfectly describe how do you feel.”

    i felt this when I saw a really nice dream, I wanted to BLOG IT! But I didn’t got proper words to describe it.

    So i have to keep it in memories…

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    1. This one is for Tom, who responded, wipe the smile off your face-Tom old boy life as an experiment and we all started out following,(remember mom and dad) some of us will become skeptical, but it’s not based on following, you’re thinking does affect your skepticism. it’s not who or what you follow, but the value of the information you come away with.

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  5. My current favourite quote is “You just keep going, art is life and there is no wealth but life, to mangle John Ruskin…”, it was said to be by my photography teacher in a moment of supreme insecurity about my work, whenever I’m stuck I think of that quote and find a way forward.

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  7. Right now, one of my favorite quotes is from Erma Bombeck, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything You gave me.'”

    There is an online bulletin board called Pinterest. I am addicted to it and can keep all of my favorite quotes/ideas/other interests in one or more places online. Check it out- it is fantastic! Best wishes, Stephanie

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  11. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

    The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

    Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

    The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

    It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

    – Carl Sagan

    One of the most inspiring quotes ever. No religious platitudes could ever compare.

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  12. “We need to move from a multicultural to an intercultural community, from a static description of the existence of many to a dynamic recognition of interaction, mutual influence, and interconnectedness.”

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  15. Things that matter.

    Friends Matter.

    Friends are the branches of one tree
    The winds our strength we send to thee

    When harsh winds blow we hang on tight
    Though far away and out of site

    Our spirits flow to you we send
    We know your ache our hurting friend

    Softly Sisters send and share
    We know the burden that you bare

    A tree grows blossoms on the branch
    Soft wind in spring can make it dance

    Renewed again in the spring light
    It grows once more with strength and might

    Your burdens great our friendships strong
    We love you friend our friendships long

    We will wait to see your smile
    Never lost just gone for awhile.

    Written by Susan Oliver.

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  16. THEY

    They came from all walks of life
    Some sharper than your knife
    They came to earn
    Some with a dire burn
    Some so funny
    Some so fussy

    Some so sheik or shy
    Eyeing their gal or guy
    Others focused on long hours
    Braving the cold and showers
    But with the first ring
    Listen how they sing
    Then nothing else now matters
    Only the whip of their masters

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  17. My favourite quote comes from Ben Okri in ‘To an English friend in Africa’
    Be grateful for life as you live it.
    And may a wonderful light
    Always guide you on the unfolding road.
    March 1991, from ‘An African Elegy’.

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  21. This poem was written by Mother Teresa and is engraved on the wall of her home for children in Calcutta.
    People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
    Forgive them anyway.

    If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives;
    Be kind anyway.

    If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies;
    Succeed anyway.

    If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
    Be honest and frank anyway.

    What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
    Build anyway.

    If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
    Be happy anyway.

    The good you do today, people often will forget tomorrow;
    Do good anyway.

    Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
    Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

    You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
    It was never between you and them anyway.

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  22. This is a good one buddy! Living your talent makes a lot of people jealous and envious! I believe their envy is caused by inability to see something good in themselves! Ralph Waldo Emerson said the last on envy when he calls it suicide,and wraps it up by saying there is always something new in nature, embedded in everyone!

    Envy kills one’s talent! Alas, people who want to act their talent will be discouraged when they get to see how envious and jealous people become, just because they see their talent in motion! I like that quote because it spells it out that your responsible if you fail to use your talent, use it, even if negative people mock you, laugh at you, discourage you! Time will justify you! With time they will come to respect you! Victory!

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