Princess Sophie of Prussia and Victoria (‘Vicky’), Crown Princess of Prussia, 1874
“Childhood ought to be such a happy time, it never returns. I remember what a coward I was as a child over all and everything except the water. I think I had a fairly good nerve when I grew up because my Papa was so kind and patient, and I felt that when he was near nothing could happen to me. If he had scolded and shaken or forced me, I should have been nervous and terrified of him as well. Papa always said he could not bear to think of his childhood, he had been so unhappy and miserable, and had many a time wished himself out of this world.
I always think we grown-up people ought to be so careful how we exact obedience from our children. Obedience that is not cheerful or willing only ruins the character. All that nonsense of ‘breaking the will’ is now recognised as making children vicious and false and sly. Training a child’s will so that it may trust willingly to the guidance of its elders, and believe in their protection, has obtained far happier results than enforcing a dogged obedience, as the child is not convinced that it is wrong but only dreads the consequences of displeasing its elders. But all this we only realise when we are older and have seen something of the world and of character and of childhood.
For all these reasons I am so much for the 'Kinder Garten’, and against the dreadful old system of 'infant schools’, where poor little things were chiefly instructed to sit still and obey like little machines or tiny recruits, which is so utterly the reverse of a child’s nature, that wants constant movement and change and liberty, as well as love and kindness, to grow like a young plant in the sunshine.”
- Vicky
Quite Simple When You Think About It
The professional Tai Chi Swords on: http://www.icnbuys.com/tai-chi-swords.
https://iglovequotes.net/
“I have this strange feeling that I’m not myself anymore. It’s hard to put into words, but I guess it’s like I was fast asleep, and someone came, disassembled me, and hurriedly put me back together again. That sort of feeling.”
— Haruki Murakami (via purplebuddhaquotes)
“You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame. How could you become new if you haven’t first become ashes?”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
You know exercise is good for you, but do you know how good? From boosting your mood to improving your sex life, find out how exercise can improve your life.
Kung Fu feiyue shoes on: http://www.icnbuys.com/feiyue-shoes.
follow back
““Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose… …Describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is not poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. - And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it.””
— Rainer Maria Rilke (via amargedom)
“Suddenly she realized that what she was regretting was not the lost past but the lost future, not what had not been but what would never be.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Nice Quiet Place (via goodreadss)
No Love like Self Love.