Who We Are Quotes - Page 31

• As we let go of the machine model of work, we begin to step back and see ourselves in new ways, to appreciate wholeness, and to design organizations that honor and make use of the totality of who we are.

  Margaret J. Wheatley

  Letting Go, Organization, Appreciate

  Margaret J. Wheatley (1994). “Leadership and the new science: learning about organization from an orderly universe”, Berrett-Koehler Pub

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• To say what or where we came from has nothing to do with what or where we came from. We do not come from there any more, but only from each word that proceeds out of the mouth of the unnamed. And yet sometimes it is our only way of pointing to who we are.

  W. S. Merwin

  Mouths, Way, Sometimes

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• Places come to exist in our imaginations because of stories, and so do we. When we reach for a "sense of place," we posit an intimate relationship to a set of stories connected to a particular location, such as Hong Kong or the Grand Canyon or the bed where we were born, thinking of histories and the evolution of personalities in a local context. Having "a sense of self" means possessing a set of stories about who we are and with whom and why.

  William Kittredge

  Mean, Thinking, Intimate Relationships

  William Kittredge (2010). “The Nature of Generosity”, p.13, Vintage

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• Happiness is just a positive perception from our brain. Some days, you will be unhappy. Our brain is a tool we use. It's not who we are.

  James Altucher

  Perception, Brain, Unhappy

  "The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Reinventing Yourself" by James Altucher, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 18, 2013.

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• I don't believe in originality in art. I think we exist on this earth to inspire each other, through our actions, through our deeds, and through who we are. We're always borrowing.

  Bill Viola

  Art, Believe, Thinking

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• Your actions are not in a vacuum. They impact other people. It may be in a way that's less obvious than in mainstream movies, but it comes to an understanding of who those people are. It also leaves it open to interpretation. And that's what art is, a form in which people can reflect on who we are as human beings and come to some understanding of this journey we are on.

  Wendell Pierce

  Art, Journey, Impact

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• I think one of the reasons to be here on earth is to finally be who we are, at all times - to know and be predictable to ourselves.

  Louise Erdrich

  Thinking, Earth, Reason

  "Cross-dressing the Divine". Interview by Josie Rawson, www.motherjones.com. June 2001.

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• Usually, we think that "good" loneliness is what we call "solitude," the choice of some alone-time. But I want to press on with the negative dimension, to look at ways in which a fundamental sense of being separated from others shapes who we are and why.

  Thomas L. Dumm

  Loneliness, Thinking, Choices

  Interview with Jill Stauffer, believermag.com. January 1, 2009.

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• Sometimes the enormity of war overwhelms the truth that all great struggles are just the sum of individual stories. Each is more than just the story of one soldier's service and sacrifice. Their service ripples across their families, friends and their communities. Memorial Day reminds us it is the noble sacrifice of many that makes us who we are.

  James Carafano

  Memorial Day, War, Struggle

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• Respect for food is respect for life, for who we are and what we do.

  Thomas Keller

  Thomas Keller (2016). “The French Laundry Cookbook”, p.2, Artisan Books

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• Be generous with your heart! The more we spontaneously give, the more connected and enriched we will feel. What if we use each other as our living temples, and put our best offering foot forward to see what direction life points us? I believe that if we live in a state of offering - even if we think we have nothing to offer - life blesses us and we feel more at peace with who we are and what we have.

  Agapi Stassinopoulos

  Believe, Heart, Thinking

  "The Power of Offering: How Offering Can Instantly Unbind the Heart" by Agapi Stassinopoulos, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 17, 2011.

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• In the gap between who we wish one day to be
  and who we are at present,
  must come pain, anxiety, envy and humiliation.

  Alain de Botton

  Pain, Envy, Anxiety

  Alain de Botton (2001). “The Consolations of Philosophy”, p.202, Penguin UK

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• Storytelling awakens us to that which is real. Honest. . . . it transcends the individual. . . . Those things that are most personal are most general, and are, in turn, most trusted. Stories bind. . . . They are basic to who we are. A story composite personality which grows out of its community. It maintains a stability within that community, providing common knowledge as to how things are, how things should be -- knowledge based on experience. These stories become the conscience of the group. They belong to everyone.

  Terry Tempest Williams

  Real, Community, Personality

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• Who we are cannot be separated from where we're from.

  Malcolm Gladwell

  Success, Outliers

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• For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. So let us mark this day with remebrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled.

  Barack Obama

  Determination, Government, People

  Barack Obama (2009). “The Inaugural Address, 2009: Together with Abraham Lincoln's First and Second Inaugural Addresses and The Gettysburg Address and Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance”, p.14, Penguin

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• What's your name,' Coraline asked the cat. 'Look, I'm Coraline. Okay?' 'Cats don't have names,' it said. 'No?' said Coraline. 'No,' said the cat. 'Now you people have names. That's because you don't know who you are. We know who we are, so we don't need names.

  Neil Gaiman

  Cat, Names, People

  Neil Gaiman (2013). “Coraline”, p.45, A&C Black

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• Our books will bear witness for or against us, our books reflect who we are and who we have been, our books hold the share of pages granted to us from the Book of Life. By the books we call ours we will be judged

  Alberto Manguel

  Book, Pages, Bears

  Alberto Manguel (2011). “The Library at Night”, p.183, Vintage Canada

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• Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startles out wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Music, Secret, Wonder

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1954). “Basic Selections from Emerson: Essays, Poems & Apothegms”

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• The more isolated and disconnected we are, the more shattered and distorted our self-identity. We are not healthy when we are alone. We find ourselves when we connect to others. Without community we don't know who we are... When we live outside of healthy community, we not only lose others. We lose ourselves...Who we understand ourselves to be is dramatically affected for better or worse by those we hold closest to us.

  Erwin McManus

  Self, Community, Healthy

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• Nobodys life ever goes according to plan. So why do we keep on planning? Because that's how we know who we are. By what we intend to be. By what we try to become. And fail. I don't say 'fail'. I saw we aim and miss. But we still hit something.

  Orson Scott Card

  Missing, Trying, Saws

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• Maybe mistakes are what make our fate... without them what would shape our lives? Maybe if we had never veered off course we wouldn't fall in love, have babies, or be who we are. After all, things change, so do cities, people come into your life and they go. But it's comforting to know that the ones you love are always in your heart... and if you're very lucky, a plane ride away

  Candace Bushnell

  Baby, Falling In Love, Mistake

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• Interestingly, God's remedy for Elijah's depression was not a refresher course in theology but food and sleep... Before God spoke to him at all, Elijah was fed twice and given a good chance to sleep. Only then, and very gently, did God confront him with his error. This is always God's way. Having made us as human beings, He respects our humanness and treats us with integrity. That is, He treats us true to the truth of who we are. It is human beings and not God who have made spirituality impractical.

  Os Guinness

  Integrity, Sleep, Errors

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• Change is a funny thing. We never are quite sure what we are becoming or even why. Then one day we look at ourselves and wonder who we are and how we got that way. Only one thing about change remains constant...it is always painful

  Jodi Picoult

  Funny Things, One Day, Looks

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• We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are. Sheep lice do not seem to share this longing, which is one reason why they write so little.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, Sheep, Needs

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.3, Anchor

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• Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived...Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation... Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend. What people somehow forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here.

  Anne Lamott

  Children, True Friend, Mean

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