"Deep listening is miraculous for both listener and speaker. When someone receives us with open- hearted, non-judging, intensely interested listening, our spirits expand."

“Maybe I’m just a kid in love.”

“If you are going to keep company with me, don't embarrass me.”

“Depression is not generalized pessimism, but pessimism specific to the effects of one's own skilled action.”

“We don't seek the painful experiences that hew our identities, but we seek our identities in the wake of painful experiences. We cannot bear a pointless torment, but we can endure great pain if we believe that it's purposeful. Ease makes less of an impression on us than struggle. We could have been ourselves without our delights, but not without the misfortunes that drive our search for meaning. 'Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities,' St. Paul wrote in Second Corinthians, 'for when I am weak, then I am strong.'”

Source : "Here's What Russian Punk Band Pussy Riot Said At The Conclusion Of Their Controversial Blasphemy Trial". Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's closing speech at the Pussy Riot trial in Russia, www.businessinsider.com. August 10, 2012.

“We have been raised to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings.”

“I remember, when I was a child and wrote poems in little clasped books, I used to kiss the books and put them away tenderly because I had been happy near them, and take them out by turns when I was going from home, to cheer them by the change of air and the pleasure of the new place. This, not for the sake of the verses written in them, and not for the sake of writing more verses in them, but from pure gratitude.”

“There’s something to be said for doing one thing right.”

“It means that we should celebrate today's failure because it is a clear sign that our voyage of discovery is not yet over.”

Source : Jacqueline Kelly (2009). “The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate”, p.234, Macmillan