“And I’ve been three weeks shut within my mew, A-painting for the great man, saints and saints. Again, I could not paint all night.” – Robert Browning

The quotes I will be using come from the book, “The Art of Being Human”. The first quote that I will be using is by Robert Browning and he said “And I’ve been three weeks shut within my mew, A-painting for the great man, saints and saints. Again, I could not paint all night”. Personally, for me I see this as him being stuck. No one likes to feel like they are under pressure. When we have such a talent, its hard sometimes for people to remember its a talent. Sometimes it feels like work. When your talent feels like work, it makes you uninspired. He stares at a blank canvas just wishing to have an idea to paint. But he can’t because he’s not inspired. We forget that sometimes. physically and emotionally, we paint a picture for those close to us so that way we seem happy when in reality thats not what I wanted to show them at all.

“Man is the measure of all things”- Protagoras

The next quote that I will talk about comes from Protagoras and he said “Man is the measure of all things”. I believe that man is not the measure of all things because there is so much out there that man did not create. We didn’t create nature, or air or the ocean. Things that are a billion sizes bigger than us. Outer space is something else that we didn’t create. We never once had the option to create something as beautiful as space and all the galaxies out there. I believe that there is a God that is the measure of all things. He created life, beauty, morals and every little thing in between. At least for me, that is what I believe. Obviously, every one is entitled to their own beliefs.

“No one has mastery before he is at the end of his art and his life”- Michelangelo

The last quote is by Michelangelo and he said “No one has mastery before he is at the end of his art and his life”. I agree with this quote because I never truly think a painting is ever truly finished. I think there is only so much we can do to try and fix our mistakes and make them more presentable. I think this can relate to our everyday life. We try to get things perfect but I think eventually we accept the fact that we need to make cover ups to turn our life into a beautiful painting. We never truly learn how to master life because life comes with ups and downs. Things that were never really ready for. Mistakes will be made, tears will run, emotions will spark and then it all comes to a closing end. The best we can hope for is that in the end we finish with a beautiful painting rather than one that was left and never finished.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“Nature is the art of God” – Dante Alighieri

The first quote that I will be using is from the book “The Art of Being Human” and it was by Dante Alighieri and he said “Nature is the art of God”. I completely agree with quote because I was raised as a christian. I believe that nature is used as a way to spread the word of God because not everyone in the world may be able to ever get their hands on a bible but no matter where we are we can always see nature, such as a sunrise or sunset, or beautiful creatures that make us question that these beautiful things couldn’t have just randomly came about. Someone or something had to have created them. Nature is so complex but beautiful at the same time that it makes your brain go off and start to wonder.

“Each moment is absolute, alive, and significant. The frog leaps, the cricket sings, a dewdrop glitters on the lotus leaf, a breeze passes through the pine branches, and the moonlight falls on the murmuring stream” – D.T Suzuki

The next quote I will be using is by D.T Suzuki and he said “Each moment is absolute, alive, and significant. The frog leaps, the cricket sings, a dewdrop glitters on the lotus leaf, a breeze passes through the pine branches, and the moonlight falls on the murmuring stream”. For me, I see this quote as taking your time to truly see every little detail that comes with nature. Just take a moment to actually sit and enjoy everything that is around you. Everything is breathing with you, the trees, the insects, the flowers and the animals. When we take the time to just soak everything in, we tend to see things that we would have missed if we rushed our time with nature. We feel everything, the small gust of wind that hits off our face and gives us a small chill, but then right after the warmth of the sun comes back and relieves us of that chill. It is just up to us to take time out of our day to go and make that connection.

“Only in the profoundly unbounded sea can the fully invested whale be truly and livingly found out” – Herman Melville

The final quote that I will be doing is by Herman Melville and he said “Only in the profoundly unbounded sea can the fully invested whale be truly and livingly found out”. I agree with this quote because I do not think humans understand just how important it is for an animal to live in its natural habitat. These places, such as sea world take whale and dolphins and many more sea creatures away from their family to be a “show”. They weren’t created for a show. If you truly want to study a sea creature and get to know every little habit it does, try observing it through what they know best, their own habitat. We confine these whales into a tank with about a 3 tons of water and we think that its fine, but in reality this mammal is used to having an open ocean in front of it. Where they can breach, dive deep, and swim elegantly. We just need to leave everything be. Study it from afar. Do not disturb it. Over time, our answers about a specific animal will be answered without having to disrupt it.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it.” – Germaine Greer

The first quote that I will be using his from the book “The Art of Being Human” and its by Germaine Greer and they said “Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it”. Personally, I think that the majority of America forget that our freedom is not free. It comes with a cost. To take freedom for granted is something I think that we have all been caught doing. Freedom is something that we don’t really think about but yet were given it every single day. When we talk, we have the option of free speech. We have the option to express ourselves. We use it in our every day life. Without freedom, we would have to keep our mouths shut about everything we dislike to what political parties we what to be apart of.

“Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you” -Jean-Paul Sartre

This next quote that I am using is by Jean-Paul Sartre and he said “Freedom is what you do with whats been done to you” . I completely agree with this quote because we do not have control over what happens to us in our lifetime. Yes, we may have some affect on what goes on in our life but I personally believe in fate and that everything happens for a reason. Since I am a christian, I view it as all the good and bad that come to us, came to us for a reason. God wouldn’t give us something that we couldn’t handle. We have the strength to overcome anything honestly. We have the freedom to forget and move past a situation, which I feel like many people forget that they have the chance to forget hurtful memories. It is best just to live your life with the ups and downs and just remember that we have the freedom to forget whatever we want. The good, the bad and the ugly.

“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present”- Albert Camus

The last quote I will be using is by Albert Camus and he said “Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present”. In order to make our future better and brighter, we have to focus on the NOW vs the future. When we focus on everything now, then we have the ability to make changes and corrections that will better our future. Your going to be able to change your future by learning your mistakes now then rather having to learn them the hard way in the future. We have to give it all we got now because were not always promised the future. We have to learn to make the present amazing, fix our mistakes and learn and grow wiser. We need to do all this for our future. Because we do not know what our future holds.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“If love is often cruel or destructive, the reasons lie not in love itself, but in the inequality between people” – Anton Chekhov

The first quote I will be using is in the book “The Art of Being Human” and it’s by Anton Chekhov and he said “If love is often cruel or destructive, the reasons lie not in love itself, but in the inequality between people”. I completely agree with what this quote says because love can not destroy itself. It is destroyed by humans, whether were falling out of love or choose actions that causes heartbreak amongst those that love us. The mistakes we make can change the way we feel about someone drastically. Love can destroy a friendship because if your willing to take that chance with someone even if it may ruin the friendship thats the chance your going to have to take. Your relationship may thrive or it could crumble and leave both of you with open wounds that you are desperately trying to sew shut but do we ever truly sew them shut? Sometimes we rely on the next person to sew them shut but majority of the time they end up reopening those same wounds and create their own along with it.

“Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes” – Old Proverb

The second quote I will be focusing on is by Old Proverb and it says “Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes”. I agree with this quote because majority of the time were so blinded by love that we don’t care about anyones opinion about that person because were so infatuated with him. They can do no harm in our eyes. Even if others try to warn us about that specific person, we choose not to listen… instead sometimes we turn our backs on those who are only trying to help and care for us. Its the same with friendship. Sometimes we ditch our old friends that have been with us since day one for new friends that may not guide us in the right direction. Over time, I believe that every friendship begins to fade and suddenly your eyes are open to who that person truly was and the negativity that constantly follows those people around.

“It is in the love of one’s family only that heartfelt happiness is known.” – Thomas Jefferson

The final quote I will use is by Thomas Jefferson and he said “It is in the love of one’s family only that heartfelt happiness is known. Personally, I feel my happiness when I am with my family. No body else loves me like my family does. Their love is unconditional and even through my mistakes they lovingly guide me through rough patches so that way I’m stronger and happier at the end. Its not all sunshine and rainbows though, since I have gotten to college I see less of my family now, which is really difficult for me because I am a family oriented person, thats just who I am. I recently just saw my mom and dad after two months of not seeing them. Every day that goes by makes me realize just how much I love them. I truly am not at my happiest unless I am with them. I realized that I don’t laugh as hard as I can and I don’t smile as brightly as I could. My mom and dad bring out my true laugh and my true smile because they give me no reason to not be happy. They give me all their love and thats all I could possibly wish for.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“From listening comes wisdom and from speaking, repentance” – Jewish proverb

This quote is in the book “The Art of Being Human”, and it was said by a Jewish proverb and they said “From listening comes wisdom and from speaking, repentance”. For me, I think this is very true because when we are able to stop talking for once and just listen to whats around us and listen to other peoples stories really gives us insight on their lives and what they had to endure. If we can’t stop and listen, wisdom will never be gained. We will be to caught up in ourselves than to even focus on what is around us. When we actually listen and wisdom is gained, then when we start speaking we realize what should and shouldn’t be said. And when we do say or so stuff that we maybe shouldn’t have done we know that we should repent or apologize. But it all starts with listening.

“Wisdom begins in wonder” – Socrates

The nest quote I will be talking about was said by Socrates and he said “Wisdom begins in wonder”. I agree with this quote because in order to gain knowledge and become more wise is to either learn from others or learn from yourself and the mistakes that you have made. But in order to even make a mistake, we first have to wonder that “what if’s”. If we never wondered then we wouldn’t want to know the feeling of wisdom. No one would gain anything from life. It would be pointless. What would our purpose be? In order to find our purpose in life, we need to grow mentally. But how can we do that if we never wondered, made mistakes, and learned from those mistakes?

“Who so has done an atom’s weight of good shall see it; and who so has done an atom’s weight of evil shall see it” – The Qur’an

The last quote I will be using is by The Qur’an and it says “Who so has done an atom’s weight of good shall see it; and who so has done an atom’s weight of evil shall see it”. I completely agree with this because deep down, we as people know who we are. We know whether were genuine down to the core or if everything we say or do to people is either fake or hurtful. Personally, I feel as if being genuine is the biggest prize in life that you can have. I was raised by amazing parents who taught me right from wrong and they instilled that in me. I look up to my parents, their kindness and generosity to others is what created my outlook on life. My kind heart comes from them. They structured me into the person they wanted me to be and eventually I grew up into someone who I wanted to be as well. For those who may not have had the shiniest background or Homelife may not be as happy and caring in life because they didn’t get any love or care when they were growing up. I personally believe that parents play a big role in how we grow up and who we become. But everyone is different, their story, their life and who they are. That is what makes us individuals.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“Regardless of time and place human beings cherish a common desire for happiness and a wish to avert suffering” – The Dalai Lama

The quote that I will first be using is in the book “The Art of Being Human” and it is by The Dalai Lama and they said “Regardless of time and place human beings cherish a common desire for happiness and a wish to avert suffering. I think this quote is very true because majority of the time no one is one hundred percent happy. Everyone goes through rough times. Some people actually show it on their exterior that their unhappy, whereas some people have the brightest personalities and smiles but their dying on the inside. No one wants to continuously go through life with the feeling of suffering. Suffering can be a wide range of different things, everyone has different levels of pain, emotionally and physically. Everyone deals with suffering in different ways, some never get past the bad days. The days are filled with so much suffering that everything blurs together and it pushes them over the edge. That whys happiness is strived for. And sometimes its up to us to make our own happiness.

“A real obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness” – Fontenelle

The next quote that I am going to use if by Fontenelle and they said “A real obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness”. I agree with this statement especially when people rely their happiness on other people. People who can’t seem to get in the right mind space or who deal with depression tend to either shut others out or become dependent on them to pull them out of this rough patch. For some, people are only happy around other people, their moods vibe with the other persons mood. And when they are with that person the whole day and when they are alone at night they realize that their quick dose of happiness was only temporarily. They expect too much. Your happiness has to come from within in order to be truly happy. You can rely on anyone or anything.

“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences” – Norman Cousins

The final quote I will be writing about is by Norman Cousins and he said “Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences”. Wisdom comes from experiences. The more mistakes we make, the more we learn from it. Sometimes it doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to keep making mistakes in order to learn and grow. We can get wisdom and insight from many things, such as how are friends behave and the consequences that follow them or learning from you parents. There are times where we just have knowledgable wisdom and we can decipher between right and wrong. Many people think that wisdom comes with age. Even though that statement is relatively true, it depends on whether or not that person has learned their lesson. Someone can be 64 and still have the mindset of a 13 year old. It just depends on how your able to take your mistake and learn from it and help others to not make the same mistake that they may have made.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place.” – Ice-T

The quote is from the book “The Art of Being Human”, and the quote that I chose is by Ice-T and he said “Passion makes the world go round. Love just makes it a safer place”. My interpretation of this quote is that passion and love are completely different. Passion can relate to many things, such as a person that you care for or your work, whereas love is caring and being kind. If people hated where they work and were not passionate about anything then no one would give 100%. Everything would be half asked, but when people are passionate about what they do then their excited and they want to produce the best work that they possibly can. Love makes the world a safer place because if no one knew the feeling of love then they wouldn’t know what it would feel like to loose a loved one. No one would care if someone was killed, but since we are able to feel love were able to turn down the bottle of alcohol we are offered if we have to drive somewhere or reevaluate hurting someone in general.

“The stars about the lovely moon hiding their shining forms when it lights up the earth at its fullest”- Sappho

The next quote is by Sappho and he said “The stars about the lovely moon hiding their shining forms when it lights up the earth as its fullest”. I interpret this quote as one star can not light up the night sky by itself, but when there is many of them, the sky is as bright as it could be. I relate this back to people, the more alone one is, the more dim they are gonna be, whereas if there are many people trying to work together then they can light up the world and create something beautiful.

“To see a world in a grain of sand And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour”- William Blake

The quote “To see a world in a grain of sand And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour” Willian Blake can mean many things. For me, I interpret this quote as seeing something for more than what it is. Like being the person with an outside perspective, be different. Don’t take things for granted and see the beauty in things. Cherish the time that we have with people whether its 1 minute or 1 hour with them, be kind and loving towards them because you never know when our moments will end with that person. Just take your time to love life, don’t throw it away for anyone or anything

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“In a world of peace and love music would be the universal language” – Henry David Thoreau

Everyone has their own taste of music. Music describes someones personality in a way. Someone can look like they listen to a certain type of music, but in reality it could be a different genre than you would ever except that person to listen too. The first quote “In a world of peace and love music would be the universal language”, which is by Henry David Thoreau. If the world was perfect, everyone would be able to communicate through music. Everyone would be able to communicate through music because through music we would be able to show emotion through that. Music brings people together, it makes us become one.

“Music provides a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without” – Confucius

Confucius said “Music provides a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without” and to me this is completely accurate. Music does something to the soul that no one can describe. People react to music with an emotion that I have never seen before, its beyond happiness and joy. Its an emotion on a whole other level. Without music, the world wouldn’t go round. How would people find their talent of singing or producing or creating music, if there was never music to begin with. Without music what would people do in their free time? How would road trips be? Heres an answer.. everyone would simple be bored.

“Our sweetest songs are those that tell the saddest thoughts”- Percy Bysshe Shelley

This quote that was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley is extremely true. He says that “Our sweetest songs are those that tell the saddest thoughts” and to me I feel like that is the only way to really connect with a song. When a song is just for the radio and you can not really connect with the lyrics, it becomes “just another” song. When you can actually relate to the story line behind it and the actually meaning of the lyrics than that song becomes something more than just a song. It becomes a part of you. Normally, people connect with music that has the story line of something that person may have gone through, such as a break up, mom and dad are getting divorced, a significant other cheated on me and the biggest one, which is falling in love with someone. A song that you can’t relate to doesn’t mean anything, but a song that you can relate to becomes so much more than a song.. it becomes a memory. It brings you back to wherever that song reminds you of. You are living in the past whenever a certain song comes on. And that is what good music is supposed to make us feel.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“Myths are clues to the spiritual potentially of the human life”- Joseph Campbell

Myths have been around for a long time and whether someone wants to believe in a certain myth or not is their own thing. The first quote comes from the book “The Art of Being Human”, and it is by Joseph Campbell and he said “Myths are clues to the spiritual potentially of the human life”. When someone believes in a myth that lets us see what kind of person they are and it shines some light on their personality. One myth that has a wide range of ages is the myth of whether mermaids exist or not. When children believe in mermaids they picture a beautiful cartoon character, who’s hair is dry as soon as she comes out of the water, whereas an adult who believes mermaids in mermaids may believe in them because they know that we have only discovered and explored 10% of the ocean and they are being optimistic about the discovery of mermaids. Everyone has different viewpoints of a myth, which shows that we all have our own opinions.

“The human passions transform man from a mere thing into a hero, into a being that in spite of tremendous handicaps tries to make sense of life”- Erich Fromm

The next quote is by Erich Fromm and he said “The human passions transform man from a mere thing into a hero, into a being that in spite of tremendous handicaps tries to make sense of life”. To me, this quote deals with the setbacks one may have to deal with all of his life, but he takes those setbacks and makes something out of nothing. And when he does do this he finds his purpose, his sense of life. We all have setbacks, it is up to us to make do with what is given to us, both the negative and positive.

“When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, “We did it ourselves”- Lao-Tzu

The next quote I will be using is by Lao-Tzu and they said “When the best leader’s work is done, the people say, “We did it ourselves”. To me, this quote is all about teamwork. A great leader is one that works with his people, not against his people. When a leader joins in, it shows the people that whatever the problem is that they can conquer it, with the leaders help. A bad leader is someone who bosses someone around left and right and fails to involve himself with his people. He won’t be able to solve a problem if he won’t be willing to get on the level that his people are on and shows that he is not above everyone else. A title does not mean anything. It is what you do with your time when you have an important title. A leader can come from a crowd of nobodies. It’s just the matter of who is going to step up to the plate.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.

“You miss all the fun if you obey all the rules” – Katherine Hepburn

In the book, “The Art of Being Human” by Richard Paul Janaro, there were many quotes that caught my eye but what really stuck out to me was the quote “You miss all the fun if you obey all the rules” by Katherine Hepburn. To me, this relates to everyone in general because if you are always constantly worried about the rules, you are going to miss out on many things in life. Every now and then it is okay to step out of your comfort zone and be a rule breaker, now I am not saying that we should all break the laws and go out and kill people. I am talking about little white rules that need to be broken in order to have a good time.

“Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act” – Truman Capote

The next quote that really stuck out to me was by Truman Capote and he said “Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act”. This quote really hit home because in a way, right now I feel like I am going through my “third act”. Reading this chapter, I feel like this quote was the one quote I needed to see and read because it just gave me a little reminder that bad times in our lives are not permanent. In the book, there is a section about “Solving Problems”, whether were trying to mentally, emotionally or physically solve our problems, the answer may not always be there right away. Sometimes we do not really understand why things happen until we take a look at the bigger picture. Things over time will get easier, our problems get smaller and we start our healing process. This quote reminded me of all those things.

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with family” – Anthony Brandt

The last quote that stuck out to me was the one written by Anthony Brandt and he said “Other things may change us, but we start and end with family”. To me, I don’t just see “family” as blood related. I think that family are people who always are with you through thick and thin. Sometimes our own blood will not stick with us through thick or thin. Sometimes it is our friends, who. have our best intentions for us. For other, they are lucky to have both family and friends that are willing to support them. Not many people get to have that opportunity. There are many changes in life, some things we have no control over, where as other things we do, such as toxic relationships or friendships. But no matter how far we may. run away from home, home will always be there. Our family will always be there. Supporting and wanting whats bests for us.

Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2009). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing.