Favorite Quotes/Poems

Running on empty. There was nothing left in me but doubt. I picked up my pen and wrote my way out. — Lin-Manuel Miranda

I am a drinker with writing problems. Brendan Behan

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope. HELEN KELLER

Suicide is not selfish. It is a desire to end the pain of depression. To stop being a burden to others. Having a plan for suicide gives hope for a possible end to the darkness. — Shatter the Stigma

It’s the idea that you have to be open hearted to walk through life. You have to look for light. You have to know that those things that are going to keep you going, even if you feel unloved or broken hearted you have to keep your heart open & that’s the way to go forward. Mary Chapin Carpenter

“Often only a sense of responsibility to other family members or concerns about the effects of suicide on their children keep some people alive who otherwise have a strong desire to commit suicide” Kay Redfield Jamison, Night Falls Fast, p93

“You are feeling badly. this too shall pass away. Never fear.”– Abraham Lincoln

You must trust and believe in people or life becomes impossible. – Anton Chekhov

How many suicides do you want, and I say I don’t want any, but I want there to be the freedom to do it. I study suicide but I am not pro-suicide. I’m for suicide prevention. –Edwin Shneidman

“I appear at times merry and in good heart, talk too before others quite reasonably, and it looks as if felt too. God knows how well within my skin yet the soul maintains it deathly sleep and the heart bleeds from a thousand wounds”. Hugo Wolf

“What I had begun to discover is that, mysteriously and in ways that are totally remote from normal experience, the grey drizzle of horror induced by depression takes on the quality of physical pain. But it is not an immediately identifiable pain, like that of a broken limb. It may be more accurate to say that despair, owing to some evil trick played upon the sick brain by the inhabiting psyche, comes to resemble the diabolical discomfort of being imprisoned in a fiercely overheated room. And because no breeze stirs this cauldron, because there is no escape from the smothering confinement, it is natural that the victim begins to think ceaselessly of oblivion”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

“I appear at times merry and in good heart, talk too. God knows how well within my skin; yet the soul maintains its deathly sleep and the heart bleeds from a thousand wounds” — hugo wolf

“I must make my decision, you must make yours. Bear what we must, hold and carry what we must; what I carry within me you must allow me to do it, alone, as I must; you alone may lighten this burden or render it intolerable as you choose. — Abraham Lincoln

I am now the most miserable man living. if what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me –Abraham Lincoln.

Love, success, and friendship are not always enough to counter the pain and destructiveness of severe mental illness.”
— Kay Redfield Jamison, NIGHT FALLS FAST

I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life.
–Ronald Reagan

“If it should be revealed or demonstrated that there is no future state, my advice to every man, woman, and child would be, as our existence would be in our own power, to take opium.” –John Adams

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
–Abraham Lincoln

The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can’t help it.
— Leo Rosten

If you are absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be there for my success.– –Will Smith

Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die–Buddha

Whatever you are, be a good one–Abraham Lincoln

I may never see tomorrow,
There’s no written guarantee,
And things that happened yesterday
Belong to history.

I cannot predict the future,
I cannot change the past;
I have just the present moment—
I must treat it as my last.

I must use the moment wisely,
For it soon will pass away,
And be lost to me forever,
As part of yesterday.

I must excercise compassion,
Help the fallen to their feet;
Be a friend unto the friendless;
Make an empty life complete.

The unkind things I do today
May never be undone.
Any friendships that I fail to win
May nevermore be won.

I may not have another chance
On bended knee to pray,
And thank God with humble heart
For giving me this day.
–author unknown

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay. —Robert Frost

Let people into your pain. Let them help you carry your hurt. The ones who love you want that privilege. Don’t be afraid to ask for help in carrying your burdens. Asking for help doesn’t make you weak, it makes you human. Blake Odgens