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Philosophers do not aim to discover the laws of nature. That’s a job for scientists. What philosophers aim to do is to figure out what sort of thing scientists are discovering when they discover the laws of nature. The philosopher’s aim is not to help scientists do their job. Instead, the philosopher’s aim is to better understand the job that scientists are doing. For instance, when scientists explain why something happens by appealing to a law of nature that they have discovered, what makes a law able to answer such a ‘Why?’ question? To understand scientific understanding is a job for the philosophy of science. – Marc Lange, “What is a law of nature?”

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“As a child, I loved the stories inside of songs. And the poetry. I loved how the music existed as air and water around the words—an energy to help them move deeper and more beautifully into our minds—and from there, our memories.” – Weight, Jacqueline Woodson

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"I go to pieces just opening my credit-card bills. But people do survive, all around us. The world runs on strangers coping." - David Mitchell, Ghostwritten

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“You will find it difficult. You will have to invent a way of living.” – Djuna Barnes, from “The Head of Babylon,” Smoke and Other Early Stories (Sun and Moon Press, 1982)

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Casual cruelty has become so ingrained in a lot of people because we live in a society that is structured in a cruel way. To be quite honest you are obligated to consider the harm of your words and actions no matter your personal hardships.

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"Audre Lorde argues throughout her work that we should not be protected from what hurts. We have to work and struggle not so much to feel hurt but to notice what causes hurt, which means unlearning what we have learned not to notice. We have to do this work if we are to produce critical understandings of how violence, as a relation of force and harm, is directed toward some bodies and not others." - Sara Ahmed, "The Promise of Happiness"

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“To survive, you must tell stories.” — Umberto Eco

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“He said, “Don’t you feel lonely living in your own little world?” She whispered, “don’t you feel powerless living in other people’s worlds?”” — F.G.

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She remained firm in the belief that freedom is not the ability to go anywhere one pleases, but rather the elimination of the need for escape. – Lola Olufemi, Experiments in Imagining Otherwise (p. 133)

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"you can have the other words–chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I'll take grace. I don't know what it is exactly, but I'll take it." - mary oliver

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"Later in the interview, Buckley concluded by saying, "grace is what matters, in anything, especially life, especially growth, tragedy, pain, love, death; about people, that's what matters. That's a quality I admire very greatly. It keeps you from reaching for the gun too quickly. It keeps you from destroying things too foolishly. It sort of keeps you alive; and it keeps you open for more understanding." - jeff buckley

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"You go on by doing the best you can. You go on by being generous. You go on by being true. You go on by offering comfort to others who can't go on. You go on by allowing the unbearable days to pass and allowing the pleasure in other days. You go on by finding a channel for your love and another for your rage.” – Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things

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"I would like to be alive again. I would like to say something about grace." - richard siken

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"Have I experienced happiness with sufficient gratitude? Have I endured loneliness with grace?" - mary oliver

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“And it’s inside myself that I must create someone who will understand.” – Clarice Lispector

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“It is lonesome, yes. Nevertheless, live. Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.” — Gwendolyn Brooks, from “The Second Sermon on the Warpland,”

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“Q: How do you survive whole in a world where we're all victims of something?" Ms. Morrison: Ummm, how do you survive whole--I can't do this quickly, for one--how can you survive whole and when we're victims of something, um. You know that's a nice fat, eastern/western philosophical question about 'how do you get through'? Sometimes you don't survive whole, you just survive in part. But the grandeur of life is that attempt, it's not about that solution. It is about being as fearless as one can, behaving as beautifully as one can, under completely impossible circumstances. It's that, that makes it elegant. Good is more interesting. More complex, more demanding. Evil is silly. It may be horrible but at the same time it's not a compelling idea: it's predictable, it needs a tuxedo, it needs blood, it needs fingernails, it's all that costume, in order to get anybody's attention. But the opposite, which is survival, blossoming, endurance, those things are just more compelling intellectually, if not spiritually and they certainly are spiritually. This is more fascinating job. We are already born. We are going to die. So you have to do something interesting that you respect in between."