Just the other day, I was sent an interview questionnaire, and a question on it prompted me to share one of my favorite quotes (click here to check out the interview at thechosenwriters.com). The question stumped me at first because there are so many quotes that ring with me. I love quotes because many can impart much needed wisdom at a time when little else gets through, others can provide inspiration, and those that truly ring with us can evoke a sense of kinship with the person being quoted. Quotes enable us to take the part of a work—be it a song, a story, a poem, a speech, or another work—that we relate to the most at a particular moment and use it to express ourselves or to help us analyze our own emotions privately. I could only choose one for the interview, but I decided to list five of my other current favorite quotes here.

 

1. “We are stars wrapped in skin. The light you have been seeking has always been within.”

 

—Rumi

 

 

2. “The greatest tragedy of human existence is the illusion of separateness.”

 

—Albert Einstein

 

 

3. Shall I respect man when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance.”

 

—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

 

 

4. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

 I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

 

—Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”

 

 

5. “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

 

—Benjamin Franklin

    

Bonus:

 

“I do not wish to evade the world

Yet I will forever build my own”

 

—Nightwish, “My Walden”

(Lyrics by Tuomas Holopainen)

 

What are some of your favorite quotes? Go ahead and drop them in the comments below!