Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away. And though hope can be an act of defiance, defiance isn’t enough reason to hope. But there are good reasons.

Willfulness

When we’re stubborn and inflexible about getting what we want and need, that’s willfulness. Instead of thinking about what’s possible or realistic, we try to bend reality to our will. And it’s kind of like arm wrestling with the whole universe. 

Willingness

When we’re willing, we accept where we’re at right now and what it’s going to take ... See more

Philosopher and author Albert Camus on the excuses we allow ourselves to live by:

"Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it."

Perhaps the simplest and most inclusive definition of grief is “unfinished hurt.”

“We must always remember that possessions have no inherent value. They become what we make them. If they increase our capacity to give, they become something good. If they increase our focus on ourselves and become standards by which we measure other people, they become something bad.”

— Kent Nerburn

“A lot of mistakes come from copying people playing a different game than you.”

Beware that many people want to be offended; outrage gives them an intoxicating sense of moral superiority. So desperate are they to be mad that they’ll actively seek out provocations online, wilfully misinterpret your words, and even imagine you said things you didn't.”

—Gurwinder Bhogal

Reinhold Niebuhr defined sin as a human tendency towards self-importance, failure, and moral corruption. He believed that sin occurs when people try to find security outside of the relationship between time and eternity, and when they refuse to acknowledge their limitations as creatures. Niebuhr believed that people sin by pretending to be more tha... See more