Sometimes I fall

And feel myself slowly wilt and die,

But then I suddenly spring back on my feet

To go play in the sun outside.

I am no different than the weather,

The planets or the trees;

For there do not always have to be reasons

For the seasons turning inside of me.

The magnetism that swirls

In the sky, land, and sea

Are the exact same currents found twirling

In the electric ocean within me.

I am a moving vessel of energy.

And if my emotions do not

Flow up, down,

Within and around,

Then I am not alive.

– Suzy Kassem –

And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become knowing, it must become criticism. Ask it, whenever it wants to spoil something for you, why something is ugly, demand proofs from it, test it, and you will find it perhaps bewildered and embarrased, perhaps also protesting. But don’t give in, insist on arguments, and act in this way, attentive and persistent, every single time, and the day will come when, instead of being a destroyer, it will become one of your best workers–perhaps the most intelligent of all the ones that are building your life.

– Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet

I must say a word about fear. It is life’s only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy.

– Yann Martel – Life of Pi